New Patriots QB Drake Maye explains jersey quantity selection at the beginning seemed on NBC Sports activities Boston
New quarterback, identical jersey quantity.
Rookie quarterback Drake Maye, whom the Patriots decided on with the No. 3 select within the 2024 NFL Draft on Thursday evening, showed Friday he will put on No. 10 in New England.
No. 10 is a logical selection for Maye bearing in mind he wore the quantity in highschool and in school at North Carolina. Maye’s selection remains to be notable, alternatively, for the reason that Patriots’ closing first-round QB, Mac Jones, did not precisely constitute No. 10 smartly — the 2021 No. 15 general select was once benched in want of Bailey Zappe closing season and traded to the Jacksonville Jaguars in March.
When requested about his jersey quantity determination, Maye made a joking connection with mythical Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, who would be the closing participant to put on No. 12 in New England.
“Yeah, I believe I am gonna stick with 10. So long as it ain’t 12; (cannot) fill the ones footwear,” Maye mentioned throughout his introductory press convention at Gillette Stadium. “However I am gonna stick with 10. It is the quantity that I wore in highschool and school, so simply stay it the similar.”
Maye would be the 3rd Patriots QB within the closing decade to put on No. 10, as Jimmy Garoppolo held the quantity from 2014 to 2016. The 21-year-old arrives in Foxboro with better expectancies than each Jones and Garoppolo because the franchise’s easiest draft select since Drew Bledsoe in 1993.
And whilst he insisted Thursday evening he is not seeking to be Brady — “I am simply going to check out to be Drake Maye” — Maye nonetheless has plans to be told from the GOAT when Brady is in Foxboro on June 12 for his Patriots Corridor of Reputation induction rite.
“Any quarterback’s gotta be a Tom Brady fan,” Maye mentioned. “I believe they are already speaking about June 12 being bought out for Tom and the birthday celebration for him, so it’s going to be an honor to get to satisfy him, get to pick out his mind.
“He is one of the crucial largest to ever do it, so it’s going to be a great second to get to satisfy him and simply be a sponge and soak all of it in.”