Oklahoma State football went 3-9 in 2024 and then 1-11 in 2025, leading to a change in head coach for the Cowboys. They brought in Eric Morris from North Texas to take over as the head coach, and he brought with him quarterback Drew Mestemaker. Mestemaker was great at North Texas and has been just as good at a power-conference school. This has led ESPN NFL Draft expert Mel Kiper Jr. to name Mestemaker the top quarterback in the 2027 NFL Draft class.

Now, Kiper is speaking wth Field Yates and defending his pick of top quarterback, appearing on ESPN's First Draft.

“I am the Drew Mestemaker guy, but you are right there as well as he is now after five straight games with 300-plus passing yards and two or more passing touchdowns. Your number two prospect and, of course, your QB1 by default,” Yates opened, allowing Kiper to respond.

Mestemaker has passed for 1,940 yards and 16 touchdowns this year. Still, he is a young quarterback who could come back to college next year, as he is just a redshirt sophomore. Still, Kiper loves the quarterback.

“Yeah, it's going to be interesting. Does he come out? Does he stay? You know, another year would really benefit him. He's not far removed from being a safety and a punter in high school field, but here we are talking about the second overall pick in terms of the big board,” Kiper said. “So for me, yeah, he can fill out that frame. He's going to get bigger, stronger. Arm strength's going to get better. He's only 20 years of age. As I keep saying, it's amazing where he was and where he is now. But yeah, I put him at two. Yeah, I thought about other guys like Simmons and Moore to put at that second spot. But here's a quarterback that's going to keep improving. And some of these guys, I hope you treat them like the Raiders are treating Fernando Mendoza, and you let them sit for a little bit. I hope that's a new model that we see work, and it's very effective. It's the best way to indoctrinate quarterbacks into the NFL.”

Mestemaker has had an interesting path to this spot. He was primarily a punter for Vandergrift High School in Austin, Texas. He was the backup to Brayden Buchanan, who moved on to play college baseball at Baylor, in his junior year. The expectation was for him to start as a senior, but he ended up as the backup after Deuce Adams transferred in. Adams would go on to commit to Louisville, spending two years as the backup before moving to Wisconsin this year.

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He never started a varsity game in high school and decided to walk on to the North Texas program. He was a zero-star recruit. Mestemaker made the team and began as the fifth-string quarterback. Mestemaker worked his way up the depth chart and saw time in his freshman year, completing 30 of 46 passes for 462 yards and two touchdowns. Almost all of that came in the bowl game that year, as he preserved his redshirt.

Mestemaker went on to start his redshirt freshman year at North Texas, passing for 4,379 yards and 34 touchdowns. This year, he has 1,940 yards and 16 touchdowns for Oklahoma State. Despite the loss to Houston, Mestemaker proved himself. He completed 22 of 34 passes for 365 yards and three touchdowns with one interception in the 35-32 loss.