At the absolute least, the “tank for Caleb Williams” narrative has hit yet another speed bump. For fans hoping to see the Arizona Cardinals take who is believed to be the consensus number one overall prospect for the upcoming 2024 draft, Williams didn’t do them any favors following last night’s blowout loss to the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.
Williams was nothing short of abysmal on Saturday night, finishing 23 for 37 for 199 yards, and 5.4 yards per pass, with one touchdown, and three interceptions. But not only did Williams have a bad game - it was the first time he played against tougher competition this season, and he flunked the test.
Arizona Cardinals could not have liked what they saw from Williams
Earlier in the week, I wrote that Williams had yet to face strong competition, and the upcoming game on the road against Notre Dame would be his first big time outing of the year. If Williams wants to maintain his spot as college football’s top prospect, then this can’t happen again because his counterpart, Drake Maye, has been the better player throughout the first half of the 2023 season.
Maye led his 12th-ranked North Carolina Tar Heels to a 41-31 win over the 25th ranked Miami Hurricanes. And while he only completed a pedestrian 17 passes on 33 attempts, Maye also racked up 273 passing yards, 8.3 yards per attempt, and four touchdown passes.
So far on the season, Maye has 12 touchdown passes, four picks, 1,902 passing yards, and a 68.9 completion percentage. If Cardinals fans want to see the team move on from Kyler Murray and roll with another signal caller, Maye has proven to be the better option, having guided the Tar Heels to 31-plus points in each game this season, and he has also played well against real competition.
(Statistics provided by ESPN.com)