Ask Farrell: Why did Rivals miss on Burrow's, Herbert's rankings?

There is a good chance that the first two quarterbacks taken in Thursday night’s first round of the NFL Draft will be LSU’s Joe Burrow and Oregon’s Justin Herbert.

It is also a good bet that Burrow will go first overall - virtually guaranteed at this point - and Herbert could slide ahead of Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa and be picked in the top five.

Both were three-star quarterbacks in the Rivals rankings. Both have to be considered misses after their outstanding college careers and NFL Draft positioning.

Rated as a three-star dual-threat quarterback in the 2015 class, Burrow signed with Ohio State but could not win the starting job there. He transferred to LSU and this past season he broke records, won the Heisman Trophy and the national championship.

Not even on many draft boards heading into last season, Burrow has moved up to the No. 1 pick and he will become the third-straight transfer quarterback to go with the first pick after Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray.

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CLASS OF 2021 RANKINGS: Rivals250 | Position | Team | State

CLASS OF 2022: Top 100

Herbert was more of an enigma coming out of high school, although his three-star ranking is also considered a miss.

The Eugene (Ore.) Sheldon star missed a good portion of his junior season with a knee injury, he did not attend many camps or play 7-on-7 and he was not heavily recruited with offers only from Oregon, Montana State, Northern Arizona and Portland State.

Herbert was a big kid with a big arm on film and after that, his evaluation was limited as he headed off to college.

Not all quarterback rankings were misses though. Tua Tagovailoa should be an early first-round pick and he was rated as a high four-star prospect. Jacob Eason was a five-star recruit and he’s a fringe first-round pick.

But Burrow and Herbert could both go very early. And both were three-stars. We ask Rivals National Recruiting Director Mike Farrell for his thoughts on each and why those two players were missed in the rankings.

"Burrow was a kid who didn’t jump off the tape and in person he was up and down. He’s obviously developed into a great quarterback since then. It’s hard to get inside the head of a quarterback and see how much determination there is and Burrow was clearly determined to be great.

"Herbert's ranking is easier to explain as he was a local kid Oregon took that we never saw in person and evaluated only on film. He was tall, raw, didn’t jump off the film and took some time to develop as well.

"Quarterback is the toughest position to evaluate by far and these two are a great example."