ESPN’S Adam Schefter made his weekly Friday appearance on The Dennis & Callahan Show to preview the big Sunday night match-up between Tom Brady and the Patriots vs. Peyton Manning and the Colts. Schefter also offered his Super Bowl predictions and opinion on Eric Mangini’s future with the Cleveland Browns.

Click here to listen to the full audio and read below for some highlights.

Is it safe to say in group number one alone at the top would be Manning and Brady?

Yes, I believe that’s fair and before we do that, I’ll tell you that I think that before all is said and done, they will go down as the two greatest quarterbacks who ever played the game. Better than Montana, better than Roger Staubach, better than John Elway, better than Dan Marino, better than anybody else you can consider.

To me, Brady and Manning are the two best and I put Drew Brees third, but I put him a notch under them and I do that because again it’s cliched, it’s simplistic, it’s true, but how many playoff games and Super Bowls has Drew Brees won?

I think you can make the case that in that second group trying to get to the top group, [Ben] Roethlisberger has his foot in the door before even Brees might have a foot in the door.

I agree with that 100 percent. I mean, two Super Bowl titles. The guy is this day’s version of John Elway. He wears No. 7 because John Elway did, he plays like John Elway in the sense that he’s very difficult to corral in the pocket, he’s elusive, he can go a game when he can makes some plays that you say, “What was he thinking there? Not very good,” and then in the last two, three minutes rallies the team to victory with a great comeback.

Do you put [Philip] Rivers in that second group?

I’m putting [Brett] Favre in that group right now with Brees and Roethelisberger. I will tell you that is my line of demarcation right there. It’s Manning and Brady or Brady and Manning, it doesn’t matter to me. And then it’s Ben, Brees, and Favre.

And not [Philip] Rivers?

No, not in that category.

And then, in the next one, [the third group] I would go Philip Rivers, I would go Matt Ryan, I would go Kurt Warner.

Aaron Rodgers?

No, not quite there. Carson Palmer, [Joe] Flacco, I’d put [Donovan] McNabb there, I’m a McNabb fan.

You got to put Matt Schaub in there this season.

Let me say this about Matt Schaub: I like him and he’s been highly-productive and he’s a good quarterback. There’s just something about him that I just don’t trust yet. I don’t know what it is, I watch a lot of their games. I just don’t trust the guy to pull out a big victory.

Who would you want to pull out the big victory for you with two minutes needing a touchdown: Brady or Manning?

Brady. I think Peyton is such a machine, and I also think and this was pointed out Thursday by Mike Golic to me, you think about how many interceptions did Peyton Manning throw in his first five seasons? One hundred in his first five years. And what that tells me in this day and age we live in, there is less patience for these quarterbacks to grow than there has ever been before. We saw a game last night where Jay Cutler stunk. He threw five interceptions, he was awful. People are going to be all over him and rightfully so. But Peyton Manning had some of those games too back in the day. He was allowed time room to grow, to mature, to evolve into the quarterback he has become today, which is with Tom Brady the two best quarterbacks in the game.

[Cutler] was certainly expected to be better than Kyle Orton was he not?

Well, yes, it’s hard to argue that, of course. He has struggled [in Chicago], but keep this in mind about Jay Cutler, since he left high school, and this may just be a fluke, as a starting quarterback his team has never had a winning record since he has been in high school.

You see his flaws, he thinks he can throw the ball everywhere.

And he looks, his body language out there, he looks indifferent to his mistakes.

Boomer Esiason thinks the best place for Bill Cowher next year is Chicago.

Well, the problem with that is Lovie Smith is under contract until 2011. It’s hard to me to imagine the [owners] McCaskeys eating that money and just saying, “You know what, we’re not going to worry about it and fire him and eat that money and pay Bill Cowher the money he wants on top of that.” I mean, I don’t see that.

Your choice or the choice of people you’ve talked to for the Sunday night game: who do they like the Patriots or the Colts?

I got to be honest with you, I haven’t spoken to a lot of people about that particular game.

I think there is a perception, if I’m not mistaken, I was looking in some periodical last night where a bunch of people were picking the game and it seemed like if there were eight guys, five or six of them picked New England. The one thing about New England, it’s just that it’s banged up right now. I think New England’s going to win the game, too.

If you put it in that sense of urgency, the Patriots need it more. Home-field advantage for the Patriots is out if they lose the game.

Yeah, there’s no question about that. Indy, if they lose this game, probably still going to have home-field through the playoffs. This very well may be the first of two trips to Indianapolis this season for the Patriots. This may be the prelude to the sequel that is coming in January.

The other spectacular game would be Cincinnati over Pittsburgh. Is this when we find out if the Bengals truly are for real or not?

Let me say this, the Cincinnati Bengals, if they win this game on Sunday, will have swept the season series from the Steelers and the Ravens if they win on Sunday. I picked the Bengals to the playoffs before the season started.

If you look at it right now, let’s just say if they win this game, the Bengals, they are going to win the division. Their next three games in order, at Oakland, home for Cleveland, home for Detroit. If they win this game, they are 7-2 on their way to 10-2. If they lose this game, Pittsburgh is back in the division title, but Cincinnati is still going to be going to the playoffs.

Give us your prediction for the AFC Title game.

I’ll go Patriots and Colts, and I’ll feel pretty safe making that pick with those two teams. Although, Pittsburgh does get tough, and Pittsburgh is difficult to dethrone and you can’t go wrong picking them.

The team that’s favored to win the Super Bowl right now is New Orleans.

I do feel very strongly about this. My NFC Super Bowl pick is the Minnesota Vikings.

Well, there’s two teams in the NFC, there’s about six teams in the AFC.

That’s correct. If it’s anyone in the NFC other than New Orleans and Minnesota, I will be surprised. Here’s something interesting, the entire NFC playoffs this year could be played indoors. If the season ended today, Dallas indoors, Arizona indoors, New Orleans indoors, Minnesota indoors, Wild Card games indoors, divisional playoff games indoors, NFC Championship indoors. Remember the Ice Bowl? It will be the de-Ice Bowl. So, you are looking at a situation where running games become secondary to a certain extent, the passing game is not neutralized, weather conditions are not a factor, and the two teams go out and play football and that’s the way it goes. If that’s the case, I think it’s tough to beat New Orleans or Minnesota. Dallas has come on to play well, Arizona has been very streaky. You never know how these things unfold and it always seems like the top two teams are the favorites and difficult to beat. I just see New Orleans and Minnesota. Can you give me an argument for someone else other than those two teams? It’s hard, right? If Philadelphia or Dallas is going to upset them, it’s going to have to come in the dome. It’s hard for me to see.

Jamal Lewis is blasting Eric Mangini. Sounds like Mangini is losing his team quickly?

He’s not losing his team, he lost it a long time ago. It’s gone. It’s been gone and that’s the way it is. He lost his team a while back. It’s going to be interesting to see how this team is going to go on from here because there are a lot of angry people there. A lot.

We want to know if LJ [Larry Johnson] is coming here?

Good question. Well, he’s not coming here this week, we know that. I haven’t heard New England say, “Yeah, I think he’s coming there.” I haven’t heard that. Would it surprise me later on if it happened? No, it wouldn’t surprise me. I haven’t heard anything to date to lead me to believe he’s going there to date. Down the line , maybe another running back gets hurt this weekend, maybe they struggle, anything could happen, I just don’t see it right now.

Other issues in your Top Ten?

Well, we are starting to get into the firing season here where we’re going to wait to see who’s the first owner to pull the trigger on a coach to jump into the [Mike] Shanahan, [Mike] Holmgren, [Jon] Gruden, Cowher foray. To me, Thanksgiving is always the time when that begins to happen.

So tied at the top it’s Brady and Manning and tied at the bottom it’s [Jim] Zorn and Mangini, right?

Yeah, I think Zorn will be the first to go and it’s just a question of when. They said he’s safe through the season, I don’t know I quite believe that. Mangini, they’re going to hire a football czar, so the football czar will then make a decision about who he wants in as the GM  and the football czar and the GM will ultimately decide Mangini’s fate. It is difficult for me to believe whoever you want to anoint at that football czar position they’re going to come and say, “Well, we’re really happy that Eric Mangini is our head coach here. That’s the guy we’re going to move into the future with.” So, I don’t know when it happens, but at some point I expect it to happen.