With the NFL Draft beginning on Thursday, teams will be doing last-minute preparations right up until the Chicago Bears are on the clock with the first pick. They may be surprised to learn that retired quarterback Philip Rivers recently beat prominent prospects Drake Maye and Bo Nix in a throwing competition.
Maye fessed up to the loss in an interview Monday, via ESPN analyst Kevin Clark's This Is Football podcast.
“He's the best, we also had a quarterback competition we threw on the field, throwing out routes into a net,” the former Tar Heel said. “And I hate to say it, but Philip still won that. So it was kind of my two best things I got from that is, Philip could still throw it, and shoot his memory of his play calls…”
It may be curious decision-making at best to admit this information right before the draft. Rivers shouldn't still be beating young quarterbacks at throwing drills at 42 years old, but stranger things have happened. After all, the former Charger was one of the best in the league in his heyday, so it's not surprising he still has some of that magic left in him.
“Yeah it was close obviously, I think we threw five in the net, I think he hit three,” Maye continued. “It was me, Bo Nix, Carter Bradley, I think we all hit two, he hit three.”
Will Rivers' tutelage give Maye, Nix, and Bradley a competitive edge in the pros?
Maye, Nix and Bradley will all have different NFL Draft journeys
Training with Rivers is a great way to prepare for the next level, even if Maye needs to practice staying tight-lipped in interviews. Rivers made eight Pro Bowls across his 17-year NFL career, in addition to topping the league in passing yards in 2010. Furthermore, he can relate to Maye's draft stock and the pressures that come with it. The NC State alum was picked fourth overall in 2004, and Maye is also projected to be selected at a similar point, via Pro Football Focus (PFF).
Nix, on the other hand, is projected to land somewhere in the late-first to early-second round range. PFF's mock draft had the Oregon alum selected at No. 33, the first pick in the second round. Meanwhile, Bradley wasn't selected at all. The South Alabama product has been projected to be in the seventh round to undrafted free agent range by most outlets.
If anybody will actually be affected by Maye's truth bomb, it'll probably be Bradley. The 24-year-old can ill afford any unflattering news to come out about him before the draft, as there's a real chance he could not make it into the NFL at all. The 2022 Second Team All-Sun Belt honoree is a much less prominent prospect than Nix and Maye, so he doesn't have much room for error.
Regardless, Maye and Nix are guaranteed to find homes at the next level, despite this slightly embarrassing story. However, the two signal-callers won't want to make a habit out of getting outperformed by retired players.
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