Interactive: From zero votes to QB1 — how Drew Mestemaker became the first quarterback in the 2027 draft race, step by step

In August, a panel of 25 NFL scouts and executives was asked who would be the first quarterback taken in the 2027 draft. Oregon’s Dante Moore got 14 votes. Oklahoma State’s Drew Mestemaker, who never started for his high school varsity, got none.

On Sept. 12, No. 6 Oregon came to Stillwater as a 23½-point favorite. Mestemaker ran 75 yards on the first snap, threw for 317 yards and ran for 109, and leaped in for the winning touchdown in a 39-31 upset that ended a 21-game losing streak against FBS teams.

Mestemaker has not thrown for under 300 yards since. His streak of seven straight 300-yard games ties the longest single-season run in Big 12 history and Mason Rudolph’s school record. On Halloween he threw five touchdowns at Iowa State, in a 51-49 loss decided on the final play.

At midseason, the same kind of panel was asked again. Seventeen of the 25 scouts and executives picked Mestemaker, the most for any quarterback in the poll’s three years. Moore, out with a concussion, fell from 14 votes to one. Miami’s Darian Mensah is the other riser.

In eight first-round mock drafts published from Oct. 23 to 28, Mestemaker went in all eight, never later than seventh, with an average slot of 3.4. The question teams will ask is experience: 27 college starts and none in high school. The scouts’ answer is the arm.