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Q: Mel, how come you never mention Michigan's John Navarre when you discuss next year's top quarterback prospects? He has improved every year he's been at Michigan and threw 21 TDs against just 7 INTs last year, plus he's 6-6 and has Braylon Edwards to throw to. -- Alex, New York
KIPER -- There's no question Navarre has made great strides, and he has the talent surrounding him at Michigan to do good things. The same went for Drew Henson, who had the likes of Jeff Backus and Steve Hutchinson on the offensive line, and David Terrell and Marquise Walker at WR to go with Anthony Thomas in the backfield. Quarterbacks at Michigan normally have an outstanding supporting cast and a tremendous array of talent around them, and Navarre is no different.

Edwards is an emerging star at wide receiver, Tony Pape is an outstanding young offensive lineman and Chris Perry is a returning 1,000-yard rusher, and they give Navarre the necessary tools to work with. He also has size going for him at about 6-6 and 240 pounds, and he has become more efficient throwing the football, completing better than 55 percent of his passes last season. Navarre's improved decision-making shows up in the fact that he had just one multi-interception game last year, and he is a team leader who has played a lot of football in his career in Ann Arbor.

Eli Manning is the No. 1 quarterback on the draft board right now, and Navarre falls into a group of passers with similar grades just behind Manning. Navarre will compete for the No. 2 spot with the likes of Louisiana Tech's Luke McCown, Casey Clausen of Tennessee, J.P. Losman of Tulane, Cody Pickett of Washington, Kentucky's Jared Lorenzen, Oregon's Jason Fife, Rod Rutherford of Pitt, Matt Schaub of Virginia and Jon Van Cleave of Louisiana-Lafayette. Craig Krenzel of Ohio State, Ryan Dinwiddie of Boise State and N.C. State's Philip Rivers could also slide into that group. Rivers has to prove that he is more than an outstanding college quarterback and not the next Danny Wuerffel, Steve Walsh or Ken Dorsey.

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