Mel Kiper acknowledges a gap between presumptive No. 1 pick in next year’s NFL Draft Trevor Lawrence and Ohio State’s Justin Fields.

But the gap, the ESPN draft analyst said, is far from huge.

Speaking on Wednesday morning, Kiper said that Lawrence is the lock to be the first pick but that Fields, who could be No. 2 overall, is not far behind the Clemson quarterback in his evaluation.

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“There’s a gap, it’s not a huge gap,” Kiper said on Wednesday morning.

“Think about high school coming out. Trevor Lawrence and Justin Fields were 1 and 1a. Would it be 1 and 1A ? — maybe had it not been for that Indiana game for Justin Fields a few weeks ago — three interceptions, was off his game, accuracy — just didn’t get into a rhythm. They had a lead and almost blew that big lead.

“Had he not had that hiccup, maybe you could have said it’s close and it could come down to the wire. But I think right now you’re looking at John Elway, Peyton Manning, Andrew Luck. There’s never a debate there, and certainly with Trevor Lawrence I think there will be no debate come late April. He will be — guaranteed to be — the number one pick in the NFL Draft.”

Both quarterbacks have had their hiccups this year. Lawrence missed two games due to COVID-19. Fields struggled his last time on the field, throwing three interceptions in a 42-35 win over Indiana.

With that being said, however, it is feasible that Fields could (and should) be the second overall pick in the draft. He started the first three games of the season without throwing an interception.

Ohio State is currently 4-0 and ranked fourth in the recently released College Football Playoff.