New England Patriots Win the Meme Game With Drake Maye and Justin Timberlake

It's way too early to tell what kind of an immediate impact the players drafted last week by the New England Patriots will make on the team, but one area the Patriots seem to have under control is their social media game.

I can picture it now: As soon as the Patriots social media team started hearing about the likelihood of the team using its No. 3 overall pick on a certain University of North Carolina quarterback, they started thinking. They checked the calendar, and it was too good to be true.

Less than a week after night one of the NFL draft, the calendar flipped to May.

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If things went the Pats' way, their top guy, Drake Maye, would be rocking the Patriot red, white and blue. Multiple teams offered the Patriots some tempting trades, but New England stood strong, determined to get the best available quarterback to turn the page on a tough post-Brady era at that critical position.

When the Patriots landed Maye, the social media department kicked into high gear.  When May 1 rolled around, the Pats were ready. They unleashed their version of the "It's Gonna be MAYE" meme, as in Justin Timberlake's funny pronunciation of "me" in "It's Gonna Be Me."

READ MORE: Before Gillette Stadium, New England Patriots Played at Schaefer

No, there were no Timberlake curls, but there was Drake Maye in his slim-cut suit.

Patriots/NSYNC fans can file this under IYKYK.

'It's Gonna Be Me' Is Older Than Drake Maye

Here's a fun fact. Timberlake was 23 years old when NSYNC recorded "It's Gonna Be Me" and the timeless meme was created from a picture taken that year.

Maye is two years younger.  He won't turn 22 until the end of August, a week before the start of his first NFL game.