It looked like love at first sight when the Giants brought in quarterback Drake Maye for a whiteboard test at the NFL Combine.
The former North Carolina star impressively picked up the Giants’ offensive lingo and made a serious impression on the team’s staff, including Giants general manager Joe Schoen and coach Brian Daboll, as shown in the second episode of “Hard Knocks.”
“Den dolphin right 72, tundra, float H-angle,” Daboll said to Maye, who quickly repeated the coded lingo back to the Giants’ head coach.
“Yeah, so tundra stands for what?” Daboll asked inquisitively while stroking his beard.
“Two unders,” Maye replied.
Daboll went through more advanced terminology with the young signal caller, who seemed to be speaking the same language at a high level with Daboll.
Maye added during the conversation that this was “easy stuff.”
Comparatively, Daboll was shown in his meeting with LSU product and future No. 2 pick Jayden Daniels while doing the whiteboard challenge and it didn’t seem quite as natural.
Daniels appeared less confident in the fast-moving terminology that Daboll was spewing out and understandably needed to be corrected a few times.
Maye’s showing appeared to wow the Giants front office, who appeared to be interested in trading up to draft him.
Maye wound up being selected by the New England Patriots at No. 3 overall, but there was a moment that the “Hard Knocks” offseason edition added to show just how deep the Giants’ interest was.
At the NFL Combine, Schoen said he wanted to “plant the seed” to let the Patriots know they were interested in making a move to No. 3.
“Do this for me, if you guys are going to do anything at three, like move out at all, you don’t have to tell me your plan or anything, but if you have any inkling, just call me,” Schoen said to the Patriots’ Executive Vice President of Player Personnel Eliot Wolf.
“We’ve had a couple teams call and it’s kind of been this conversation,” Wolf said, before divulging they were not sure of their plan just yet.
Schoen’s interest in moving up to the third overall pick was well documented by The Post’s Ryan Dunleavy, but in the end, New England saw what the Giants did: a potential star.
Reports came out after the draft that the Giants offered their 2025 first-round pick on top of their No. 6 pick in 2024, but that was apparently not enough for the Patriots to move off Maye.
The Vikings, who were also showing interest in Maye, reportedly offered picks No. 11 and 23 while also including their 2025 No. 1 pick.
All were rebuffed by the Patriots brass.