Two ESPN Draft Analysts Have Drew Mestemaker as Top Quarterback Prospect

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There has been a wonder as to how long it will be until Drew Mestemaker is an NFL player.

After Oklahoma State’s Week 1 dud in Tulsa, the 2027 draft hype fell off a cliff. But oh, how quickly things change.

Since that inexplicable Saturday against the Golden Hurricane, Mestemaker has looked every bit the NFL prospect he was thought to be. Across games against Oregon, Murray State and West Virginia, he averaged 343.3 passing yards while completing 72% of his throws and was responsible for 11 touchdowns.

And thus, the draft talk has resumed.

On Thursday, ESPN’s Jordan Reid released his Top 50 prospects for the 2027 NFL Draft. Mestemaker was No. 11 — first among quarterbacks.

“Mestemaker is my top quarterback prospect despite this being only his second season as a starter in high school and college. He has an unconventional style, holding the ball at his waistline before ripping a fiery, three-quarters release. Mestemaker has the confidence to test the tightest of windows from various platforms, but that can get the best of him and lead to turnovers. Plus, he can be oblivious to underneath defenders. Mestemaker is bit of a streaky passer, though his hot streaks feature plenty of “wow” moments. And he is capable of being a running threat.” — Jordan Reid, ESPN

And Reid isn’t the only ESPN employee putting Mestemaker tops in the most heralded position in the sport.

Last week (before the West Virginia game), ESPN released an episode of “First Draft,” where Mel Kiper Jr. and Field Yates gave their thoughts on prospects.

Both draft analysts noted they didn’t enjoy putting a “top three” label on stuff this early in the season, but they were asked to give their top three projected quarterbacks.

Kiper went Dante Moore, Arch Manning, Drew Mestemaker.

Yates went Mestemaker, Manning, Moore.

“He has unique size, the arm strength is very good, the scrambling ability is very good,” Yates said. “You saw that on that 75-yard run against Oregon. He’s raw. He’s inexperienced. He’s still working on seeing coverage post-snap, is Drew Mestemaker, which has led to some carelessness with the football. But if you’re looking at upside, which is part of the exercise here, I will maintain I think he has as much upside as any quarterback in the class.”

Yates called Mestemaker’s outing against Oregon the best quarterback performance of the first three weeks. If you don’t recall, Mestemaker completed 61% of his passes for 317 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions while running for another 109 yards and a score.

DREW MESTEMAKER, ARE YOU SERIOUS?!?!

Oklahoma State is back in front! pic.twitter.com/pZFt3elz3c

— ESPN (@espn) September 12, 2026

Kiper, as the ranking might suggest, sounded a tad more hesitant and noted he wasn’t a fan of some of the hits Mestemaker took (see above), but even with those reservations, he has OSU’s quarterback in his early top three.

“I like him,” Kiper said. “I wanna see that performance (against Oregon) moving forward. We didn’t see it Week 1 against Tulsa. Bad opponent this past week (Murray State), we don’t care. I agree with you, went on that field and looked better than Dante.”

There’s still a lot of football to be played this season, but the NFL is certainly well aware of Oklahoma State’s quarterback.