In the NIL era, choosing between money and intuition is one of the hardest decisions to make. While most athletes don’t think twice about chasing greener pastures, former UNC wide receiver Josh Downs followed his heart, sacrificing NIL opportunities to stay at Chapel Hill with Mack Brown because of $36 million man. Looking back, it turned out to be the best investment of his career so far.

On February 3, the Indianapolis Colts wide receiver hopped onto their Downs 2 Business podcast and explained why he stayed at UNC for his final season instead of entering the transfer portal.

“After my sophomore year, I was gonna leave UNC and go to a different school, but Drake was the quarterback. So I decided to stay, literally, because Drake was the quarterback,” Josh Downs said about his motivation to stay in Chapel Hill.

“And I was just like, Nah. I was like, ‘I’m not gonna leave and go somewhere else.’ I think we got to do it at quarterback. So I was like, I’m staying Carolina, but if he wasn’t a quarterback, I would have left that surrounding arrow. When nil was getting kind of hot. So I had some offers on the table, but I was like Nah, we got a good we got a good quarterback, so I’m gonna stay home.”

Despite the life-changing money being offered elsewhere, Downs chose to stay committed to Mack Brown solely because he was convinced that Maye was a special talent.

That bet indeed definitely paid off on the field. In their full 2022 season together, this duo was unstoppable. Needless to say, they even lead the Tar Heels all the way to the ACC Championship Game back in 2022. And Drake Maye ended up that season setting a school record with 5,019 yards of total offense that year with 38 touchdowns. And big chucks of those yards came from finding Downs. The former UNC finished his college career with over 2,400 receiving yards and 22 touchdowns.

After his historic career at Chapel Hill, the New England Patriots didn’t hesitate to draft Drake Maye with the No. 3 overall pick back in the 2024 draft, signing him to a four-year, $36 million deal. This was the first time they took a QB in the first round since the Drew Bledsoe era.

Within two years at Foxborough, Drake Maye took the Patriots back to their dynasty era, finishing the regular season with a 14–3 record while throwing for 4,400 passing yards and 31 touchdowns. After beating the brakes off AFC teams in the playoffs, the former Mack Brown QB has the opportunity to give the Pats their first Super Bowl trophy since 2018 and finish the season with the MVP award.

Truth be told, Josh Downs isn’t one bit surprised at all by Maye’s pro success. He had always been this good at UNC; now he’s just more polished than ever before. That should be a scary thought for the rest of the league for years to come.

You need to give credit to Mack Brown for developing Drake into the quarterback that he is today.

Mack Brown’s hand in Drake Maye’s MVP-caliber development

Mack Brown’s biggest role in Drake Maye’s life started with a recruiting win. He actually convinced Maye to flip his commitment from Alabama to stay home at North Carolina back in 2020. Later, after Maye’s breakout 2022 season, Brown successfully kept him in Chapel Hill despite reported NIL offers of up to $5 million from other programs. Maye later told Brown that he stayed specifically because of his relationship with him.

He even gave Maye a say in who the team hired as the new offensive coordinator. The only downsize to this duo is they just couldn’t finish the second half of the dubs for 2 out of 3 years in North Carolina.

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Their high point of their time together was definitely in 2022, when they went 9–5 and actually made it to the ACC Championship Game. Even though they lost their last four games that season, that was the season when NFL scouts started turning their attention and heads to Chapel Hill.

However, in their final year together in 2023, they went 8–5. Once again, the same old tale. The Tar Heels started their season with a 6–0 record and decided to go 2-5 in their last 7 games of the season. Despite all that, Mack Brown still always said that Maye is one of the greatest players he’s ever coached to this day.