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So what is the exact ranking and projection for every QB? Which huge name isn't even in the top 10?... Visit SportsLine now to see Heath Cummings' quarterback rankings and projections, from one of the top Fantasy experts in the nation.

This has been coming down the pipeline since April 27, 2017.

That was when the Chiefs traded up to 10th overall to draft Patrick Mahomes out of Texas Tech, mortgaging their short-term future and putting Alex Smith on notice. As you know by now, Smith responded with the best year of his career but still got moved to Washington, opening up the starting job for Mahomes. 

Almost all of this was expected.

Now it's Mahomes who is expected to sit as the leader of a Kansas City offense with arguably the best receiving trio in the NFL in speedsters Tyreek Hill and Sammy Watkins along with tight end Travis Kelce. He'll benefit from one of the sagest playcallers to grace an NFL sideline in Andy Reid. He'll have a not-too-bad offensive line protecting him and running back Kareem Hunt should take plenty of pressure off of him (and be a good receiver, too). As Kelce told CBS Sports last week, the Chiefs' offense has the potential to be "unstoppable." 

It would be a pretty big faceplant for Mahomes to botch this. 

Our first pro glimpse at Mahomes came in an inconsequential Week 17 game last season. Playing with backups (including three backup offensive linemen) against the Broncos' starting defense in Denver, Mahomes completed 65 percent of his passes for 284 yards (8.1 yards per attempt) with 10 rush yards and an interception. He was sacked twice, had a touchdown scramble called back by replay review and had three drops from his receivers. Despite a couple of slightly-off passes and one really bad overthrow, he looked better than your typical rookie quarterback.

Way better.

There are some startling (in a good way!) similarities from this game to what Mahomes did in his last two seasons as Texas Tech's starter. In those final 25 games he completed 64.6 percent of his passes for 8.3 yards per attempt — numbers right in line with his Week 17 debut and good indications of what we might expect moving forward.

What we haven't seen, however, is the three-to-one touchdown-to-interception ratio and the 22 rushing touchdowns in 25 games that Mahomes had in college. There are a lot of numbers to be uncorked by the Chiefs. That's his upside — the big scores through the air and on the ground. That drives his popularity in Fantasy more than a fancy completion percentage or passing yards average.  

Obviously there's a difference between Texas Tech and Kansas City, but we should all feel encouraged by Mahomes' first game. It was also Reid's first time calling plays for Mahomes — Reid admitted he called the game, not then-offensive coordinator Matt Nagy. Week 17 was basically an early dress rehearsal for both of them in front of the league's fourth-best pass defense. 

"He gets to that Denver game and he can function at a high level," Reid told the Kansas City Star last January. "And it's not just calling the plays, and lining up and doing it. It's a matter of the protections against that defense, moving people around."

The belief is that the Chiefs will adopt more spread concepts familiar to Mahomes into their offense, a perfect decision since it'll put major pressure on defenses given their receiving talent. The speed involved will be dizzying to defensive coordinators and Kelce is a matchup problem no matter who he lines up across from. All Mahomes will have to do is find the right matchup to exploit and avoid the pass rush to make plays. That's a lot easier to type than it is to actually do on a football field, but it's not hard to see Mahomes doing it, particularly since he did a lot of it at Denver, right down to the almost-rushing score.

The fit is amazing, but this isn't the first time a first-year starting quarterback has been hyped up before a season started. Once upon a time, guys like Ryan Leaf, JaMarcus Russell, Kyle Boller and, more recently, Johnny Manziel were hailed as Fantasy heroes without much experience. They all struggled.

Mahomes is also cursed with the worst pass defense matchups according to our independent schedule analysis. That comes with the territory when you take on a first-place schedule that includes games at the Steelers and Patriots, versus the Rams in Mexico, at the Seahawks (in Week 16) and two matchups each with the Chargers and Broncos (both were top-5 versus the pass last season and are stronger this year).

The opponents and the inexperience are definitely concerns. Where you'll find him on Draft Day eases the pain. Early ADP has Mahomes going after 100th overall, a ridiculously cheap price to pay for a quarterback with his upside.

There will be some let-down weeks. Those are inevitable. Mahomes' upside is very attractive, but it's not quite up there with the likes of Deshaun Watson. It might be right behind him, though, and Mahomes won't get picked as soon as Watson will.

So long as Mahomes' ADP stays manageable, he must be picked as a low-risk, high-reward Fantasy player. There aren't too many of those around No. 100 overall. In fact, you should plan on taking him at your last selection before No. 100 overall. Do it whether you need a quarterback or not — if there's one quarterback who has the upside to bring back a good player in trade, it would be this one.

Efficiency might work against Mahomes, that's just the way things go in high-volume downfield passing attacks like this one could be. But his potential to end 2018 as one of the 10 top-grossing Fantasy quarterbacks makes him a must-draft from Round 8 right through to Round 9 ... or 10 if you're really lucky.