It was Mels top 10 quarterback prospects based off their predraft grade.

So not how they turned out the NFL, but how they were graded going into the draft ever.

This is 43 drafts worth, and the entire list is on ESPN dot com.

Available on ESPN plus Mel.

We'll start at the top, though I don't think a major surprise that you've got back to back Stanford quarterbacks with John Elway and Andrew Luck atop your lists.

Yeah, you know, it's hard not to.

I mean, John Elway goes back to the whole time.

Favorites and people say, Boy, just think with the Baltimore Baltimore still had the Colts that John Elway would have remained with that organization and not been traded when only, of course, the the G m.

It had no participation in that trade, trade and without earnings knowledge and in the end, up leaving the team moves that I started with ESPN.

After I agreed to work with learning with the Colts, everything would have been tied.

I wouldn't be here talking to you and field right now.

Things would have gone differently.

There but because John Elway would have been a cold.

I have been in Baltimore.

Who knows what would happen?

I would have had Super Bowl rings right now.

Probably had a couple of Super Bowl rings, but that's life, right?

So again, you look, you're doing all right.

Now you gotta look at John Elway.

You know what a great, great quarterback he was?

And I think what was phenomenal and special about John.

He had all the talent, that he lived up to it.

You know, you guys have everything you would want, a quarterback he had and then to see him.

Even as a rookie.

I was at Memorial Stadium when he played against the Baltimore Colts.

He came back that rookie year.

He couldn't.

You talked about being in over his head.

He had no idea he got injured burning.

Maxwell sacked him.

He got an ankle injury, limped off the culture, winning the game.

Denver couldn't move the ball, which I know, the way a quarterback.

He got an ankle and Steve the Bird came in and let it up and let Denver back to a victory.

That's how the struggles of John Elway is a rookie.

That's why we got to be patient with quarterbacks.

When I saw John Elway struggled, Brandon was 1983 Different Era now.

But to see him lead teams, two Super Bowls that would have been out man without them shouldn't even have been in the Super Bowl and lost and to see him win at the end of his career.

A couple Super Bowls.

Uh, it's great to see a player that has all the gifts, maximize it all.

Once he got into the NFL and for John Elway everybody, he's kind of the prototypical quarterback as well.

I would describe John Elway, Peyton Manning, Ryan Leaf debate in your mind.

How did you see the two?

I barely I everything.

Everything is there.

I barely went with Manning over leash.

I made that call I had leased as one of my highest rated quarterbacks of all time.

When I thought he was right up there and the thing was was hard with that debate because it's got just go back to the real time, then not the revisionist history, of course.

Yeah, yeah, And so when you think about, if we would have been having that discussion We have Peyton at Tennessee and he never beat Florida.

Okay, And and then you had.

Ryan, who developed late in his career, seemed to show that summer before his final campaign, everything you needed mentally physically had all he carried that team.

He was a guy.

Washington State Cougars.

I mean, it takes some Roosevelt.

He's taken to great heights with Mike Prices, the head coach.

So big has it all compared to Roman.

Gabriel was I was a big L A Rams tree and growing up with Roman Gabriel, United State number eight, he would have shrugged off defenders like they weren't even there.

So it was a big debate, and I really believe I don't know.

I didn't pull the whole league, but the people I spoke to in the league, it was a 50 50 split, one leaf man.

The only thing I take solace and I did have Peyton over Ryan, but Ryan had one of my highest grades ever, so I blew it on that one Bobby bathroom took him into.

It was a bus.

Peyton's a Hall of Famer, but I was curious because it's one of the great debates in the history of the draft because Peyton didn't have the big time arm and Peyton didn't have the big time.

Athleticism.

Ryan was this big, strong arm guy could throw the ball 80 yards and and one with a lesser personnel around him and all that.

So again, Peyton is funny, because when he was here, I told you that story he's talking about, they said, I don't have any upside.

They said I was as good as America to be, and I still had pimples on my chin.

He said, You know, like, really, really guys telling me I'm a I'm a kid.

I'm a kid, you know?

But I'm never gonna get any better, you know?

Okay, story, Uh, and you know, it was It was interesting, because I mean, that year I never forget that year how close it was, trying to decide which quarterback like better And guess what, guys?

The other quarterback you didn't like.

You still have a super high grade on the other guy.

So I hit it with one.

I blew it with the other one.

Well, Peyton comes in at number three overall in your top 10 grades, and you mentioned that Ryan Leaf also makes this top 10, but not the top five.

And the reason why this conversation is relevant this year Male is because Trevor Lawrence has cracked your list as well.

Just a perspective.

Perspective on how Special Battalion you think?

Yes, he's your fourth highest rated quarterback of all time.

So if this goes as planned, the Jaguars, as bad as this year was, and 15 straight losses is brutal.

They could be the big winners of the NFL off season.

Yeah, And I think the reason I put Trevor there is, uh Well, I want to get Ryan Leaf move down a little bit.

When you go on down a slide step down a little bit, There's nothing.

A little that.

Seriously, uh, you look at Trevor.

I really think I was taking Yeah.

You want to go so high where I couldn't go without Elway spot, I figured.

Okay, I thought that was affairs spot to put a guy in.

And Todd, he has everything you want.

He was number one coming out of high school with Justin Fields.

A close second.

Someone thought one in one.

A.

He's done everything you wanted a Clemson.

He didn't have four starters on the offensive line or T.

Hagen's or Justin Ross this year.

So again, I look at Trevor Lawrence everything you want, mentally and physically, I don't know if you're great.

He seems to have.

Yeah, I mean, I do what I What I don't know is I haven't sat in a room with him and gotten his football intelligence.

I don't know how he processes.

I'd like to see more throws over the middle of the field, but I have a second highest, the highest grade since 2012 with Andrew Luck.

So I'm in complete agreement.

He's big, he's strong.

He's got the arm, the mobility.

And I told you I've been on the field with him nine times live watching him stalking him.

As I said before trying to figure out who he is, You want to know who a quarterback is, how they handle pressure, how they handle offensive linemen getting pissed at them, how they handle interceptions, how they handle touchdowns, all those sorts of things, and this guy is always level.

His emotions never change and I love that about and I think that's really important at that position.

We've got just over seven weeks until the NFL draft begins.

And if you hear people try to undercut them at all like just just change the channel, listen to different podcasts.

Click a different article to read.

Trevor.

There's no guarantee because nothing is guaranteed from the draft into the NFL.

But in terms of predraft process, I suspect that Trevor Lawrence will be graded almost universally as the top player on the board by award wide margin around the NFL.

Just a note to Mels Top five rounded out with Jim Kelly, the great Jim Kelly who, of course, played his college football at Miami.

And you can find the entire column, as I mentioned on dot com.

Right now, Number six through 10.

They'll give you little preview there about some of the players that maybe didn't go as planned.

But they're also worked to Super Bowl champs, and one other active quarterback makes Todd Excuse me.

Mills, top 10 quarterback prospects braced off predraft grades of all time.

That's right, he is a quarterback, and it may not be who you think.

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