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Think of the NFL draft process like a ladder with 10 rungs on it. Going on school visits over the summer (for scouts) is the first rung. That's where you get accurate height, weight, speed times and do an initial character visit.

The second rung is where we are right now: the early part of the season when scouts are still getting out to see players live for the first time. That's what I've been doing, too.

The rest of the ladder: in-season school visits, bowl games, Senior Bowl, scouting combine, pro days and private workouts before the end of April when the 2018 NFL draft takes place.

Properly evaluating a player takes a lot of time. I prefer to not write up strengths or weaknesses on a player until I've watched three games of film. There's nothing wrong with watching a game on TV or YouTube if that's all you have, but when writing up a player for a scouting report, I focus only on that player throughout the game. Doing this in person is best, but going off the All-22 works too.

As you can imagine, there aren't enough hours in the day to see every prospect at that level yet. In fact, it takes me (and two assistants) until March to generally feel good about each player. That makes this list but an early start to the final rankings for this year's class. A lot will change. No evaluator should be so bullish on summer rankings that they won't change them.