At 247Sports, the NFL Draft is our measuring stick. It’s how we take stock in whether we got our high school rankings right or wrong. Freshmen All-American teams are great. All-Conference and All-American accolades count for something. Ultimately though, our final evaluation comes from the collection of NFL GMs and scouting departments that spend countless man-hours literally grading the college careers of the high school prospects we once projected.

But what good is a test if you don’t check your scores? With that in mind, we’ve taken a pick-by-pick analysis of the 2019 NFL Draft to determine where 247Sports’ rankings (not to be confused with the 247Sports Composite) stacked up with the rest of the industry at large, specifically Rivals.com and ESPN. For every NFL Draft pick that was ranked by at least one site as a four-star or better out of high school, we graded which site most accurately ranked him relative to his draft order. We also awarded a bonus if a site had a first rounder ranked inside the top 32 nationally and assessed a penalty if a site had a three-star or lower ranking on a prospect that one of the other sites had as a four-star or better.

On the whole, 121 of the 254 players drafted (48 percent), were ranked by at least one site as a four-star or better coming out of high school or junior college. Walk-ons and small college players that went unevaluated out of high school bump that percentage up to at least 54 percent. Industry-wide, the correlation between highly-rated players and successful college careers is strong and continues to grow. Within the industry, here’s how the 2019 NFL Draft shook out, ranked most accurate to least accurate.

First round

1. 247Sports

2. Rivals.com

3. ESPN

Of the 20 first round picks that had been identified as an NFL talent by at least one of the three networks, there were only three that 247Sports gave the least accurate ranking to. 247Sports’ big win was our No. 22 five-star ranking on defensive end Brian Burns, who ended up going 16th out of Florida State. Rivals.com ranked Burns 65th nationally and ESPN had him down at No. 160. 247Sports was also the only site to have a four-star grade on Alabama running back Josh Jacobs. The bad news for 247Sports is that we were the only network to have a three-star grade on Devin Bush and had Marquise Brown ranked as a high three-star instead of a four-star out of junior college unlike the other two sites.

For Rivals, the biggest accomplishment was likely having Quinnen Williams the highest, all the way up at No. 106 nationally. He was 180 by 247Sports and 236 by ESPN. Rivals was also the most accurate on Jeffery Simmons, ranking him 15th in the nation while he was 33rd and 84th, respectively, by 247Sports and ESPN. The big miss on Rivals came from having Kyler Murray ranked 71st in the country while both ESPN and 247Sports had him inside the first round range. Rivals was also the lowest on Devin White, ranking him outside its Top250 while ESPN had him 166 and 247Sports had him at 151.

ESPN can take pride in having the highest and most accurate ranking for the top two picks in Kyler Murray (13) and Nick Bosa (3). A couple of the ESPN missteps included being the only site to have a 3-star grade on Kaleb McGary and ranking Jerry Tillery all the way down at No. 280.

Top100

1. 247Sports

2. Rivals.com

3. ESPN

Strong results in round 2 and 3 for 247Sports included the highest rankings of any service by a significant margin for Greedy Williams (173), Parris Campbell (129), Taylor Rapp (219) and Justin Layne (137). Among the Day Two misses for 247Sports: we were the only site that had a three-star grade on Auburn CB Jamel Dean and we had the lowest ranking on JoeJuan Williams (269) but there were only four instances in rounds two and three that 247Sports had the least accurate ranking.

For Rivals, the Day Two wins include a No. 40 ranking on Byron Murphy (146 on 247Sports and 187 on ESPN). It was the only site to have a four-star rating on Cody Ford and Mike Edwards and it had the highest ranking of anybody (156) on Miles Boykin. The misses included going too high with Damien Harris (all the way up at No. 8) and too low with Taylor Rapp and Lonnie Johnson (the only site that had them as three-stars).

ESPN’s Day Two big wins included being the only site that had Irv Smith Jr. as a four-star, ranking Jalen Hurd appropriately at No. 70 and catching Jace Sternberger as a four-star level prospect out of junior college. Conversely it was the only site to have three-star grades on Chase Winovich and Germain Pratt and it had DK Metcalf way too low down at No. 242.

Full Draft

1. 247Sports

2. Rivals.com

3. ESPN

Day Three of the NFL Draft was much more volatile with each network winning at least one round but 247Sports still landed on top for the weekend due in part to wins like being the only site to have Iowa’s Amani Hooker as a four-star in Round 4. We hit D’Andre Walker’s ranking right on the head in Round 5 (ranked 165, picked 168). We hit on Kaden Smith in Round 6 by having the lowest ranking (83) of the three sites. Also, Kentucky OL George-Asafo-Adjei’s four-star grade was a win in Round 7 and a late drop of Isaac Nauta from five-star to four-star made us the most accurate on him within the industry.

A strong Round 4 for Rivals.com included being the only site to rank Notre Dame’s Julian Love and Oklahoma’s Dru Samia as four-stars. It also was rewarded by going lowest (97) with Jarrett Stidham.

ESPN’s lone win came in Round 5. In that round, it was the only site to rank Vosean Joseph a four-star, and it had the most accurate rankings on Clayton Thorson (157) and Darius Slayton (192).