Drew Bledsoe Says NFL QBs Can Be Great By Emulating... Wayne Gretzky | The Ricky Cobb Show

Everybody knows the best way to identify a great NFL quarterback is to see how he compares to… Wayne Gretzky. Well, maybe not everybody knows that — but Drew Bledsoe does!

During an appearance on OutKick's The Ricky Cobb Show on Monday, the former Super Bowl champ offered his thoughts on one big mistake that NFL teams make when scouting for a quarterback.

"Teams put too much weight on the physical side of playing quarterback," Bledsoe said, acknowledging that this worked out to his own advantage. "For me, I'm 6'5, I could throw really hard, so that that helped me. But your processing speed and your accuracy and your anticipation are far more important than how hard, how far you can throw it, how fast you can run, you know, any of those things."

Bledsoe was drafted No. 1 overall by the New England Patriots in 1993. He led them to a win in Super Bowl XXXVI and racked up four Pro Bowl appearances during his 14-year pro career. So, in Bledsoe's case, drafting a tall guy with a strong arm worked out pretty well.

But the now-52-year-old shared with Cobb some intangibles that he believes scouts should be looking for in a signal caller instead.

"Number one, character," Bledsoe said. "What kind of leader are you? Because you're going to be the face of the franchise. How quick can you learn?"

Drew Bledsoe Discusses QB Scouting On 'The Ricky Cobb Show'

But there's one very specific quality that he looks for — and this is where Wayne Gretzky comes in.

"How soon does the ball come out? And how well is somebody anticipating? How good are they at throwing somebody open rather than seeing somebody open and then throwing the ball?" Bledsoe asked, rhetorically. "There are a number of quarterbacks that I've watched and have not done well in the NFL, and that's because they have to wait to see somebody open before they throw the ball. Well, in the NFL, by the time you see somebody open, that hole is going to close by the time the ball gets there. So you have to be able to anticipate, get the ball out of your hands early and throw the ball to the open spot.

"When people talk about Gretzky, the greatest hockey player of all time, he was never skating to the puck. He was skating to where the puck is going to be. And he was better at that than anybody else that ever played the game up to that point."

Drew Bledsoe tells OutKick's Ricky Cobb that Wayne Gretzky was great at anticipating where to pass the puck — a skill that's also highly valuable in NFL quarterbacks.

("The Ricky Cobb Show" & Getty Images)

Bledsoe listed a couple of examples — Brock Purdy and Tom Brady — who have all the right intangibles, even if they weren't the best on paper coming out of college.

And frankly, it's hard to argue with that logic.

Ricky Cobb is the personality behind @Super70sSports. Catch 'The Ricky Cobb Show' weekdays at 11 a.m. ET on OutKick.com!