NFL Draft Analyst Daniel Jeremiah Marks Drew Mestemaker as Early Favorite to be First QB Taken

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It’s still relatively early in the 2027 NFL Draft cycle, but another football analyst has Drew Mestemaker as the early favorite to be the first quarterback off the board.

Coming into the year, there was a wonder of whether Mestemaker would be drafted in 2027 or 2028. Again, it’s early, but recent trends might suggest the NFL will be interested in him sooner rather than later.

This time it was ESPN/NFL Network analyst Daniel Jeremiah who appeared on the Rich Eisen Show last Friday.

Eisen set the prompt up by asking for a dart throw (because of how early it is) of the first quarterback taken.

“Where we are right now, I think the most intriguing player when you put all that stuff together would be Mestemaker,” Jeremiah said. “Just off early season here.

“(Oregon’s) Dante Moore is, obviously he’s hurt. I hope he’s OK after that horrendous hit that he took, but he’s not played his best ball. And they were on the same field. I watched that tape, and Mestemaker was, from an NFL standpoint, was just so much more intriguing with the athleticism that he has to go along with the other array of skills.”

Jeremiah broke down Mestemaker’s game against the Ducks after it happened, talking about his pros and some things he’ll need to clean up before taking on NFL defenses.

And just because Jeremiah put in an early prediction for Mestemaker to be the first quarterback taken, that doesn’t necessarily mean that Mestemaker will be the first overall player taken. Jeremiah, who also does radio for the 0-5 Los Angeles Chargers, noted it’d be hard for teams in need of a wide receiver to not take Ohio State’s Jeremiah Smith.

Jeremiah also noted that if an NFL team needed to win a game on this week, he’d probably take Ole Miss’ Trinidad Chambliss as the most pro-ready prospect.

“In an ideal world for (Mestemaker) and his development, just more playing time,” Jeremiah said. “Another year would be great, but in terms at where we are at this point in the season, (Darian) Mensah has been outstanding with just the decision-making and the accuracy, but I think Mestemaker is just a little more toolsy than him. And when we get in draft time, Rich, that usually is what takes the cake.”

Jeremiah isn’t the first analyst to say such a thing. Earlier this season, ESPN’s Jordan Reid listed Mestemaker first among quarterbacks in his Top 50 prospects lists, while ESPN’s Field Yates also tabbed Mestemaker as an early pick to be the first quarterback taken. And just last week, David Pollack made an even more confident claim that Mestemaker was on track to being the No. 1 pick.