Nick Baumgardner’s new 2027 mock draft starts with a trade: the New York Jets send the Tennessee Titans the No. 6 and No. 8 picks, a 2027 third-round pick and a 2028 mid-round pick to move up to No. 1 and take Oklahoma State quarterback Drew Mestemaker.
Baumgardner’s top-10 projection, published Friday, October 30, is his first since the Titans agreed to send All-Pro defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons to the Chicago Bears for two first-round picks and a 2027 fourth-rounder. Tennessee now owns four first-round picks over the next two drafts, and Austin Mock’s projections, which set the order for the mock, currently have the Titans holding the No. 1 pick in April. Baumgardner wrote that Tennessee is “in position to do almost anything it wants.”
In his version, what the Titans want is more picks. They move down five spots, still land two top-10 players in LSU tackle Jordan Seaton and Ole Miss defensive tackle Will Echoles, and keep Chicago’s first-round pick for later in the round.
Baumgardner’s top 10
The last column shows where each player went in Baumgardner’s previous mock, a full first round published October 7.
| Pick | Team | Player | Pos. | School | Oct. 7 pick |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New York Jets (from Titans, trade) | Drew Mestemaker | QB | Oklahoma State | 13 |
| 2 | Los Angeles Chargers | Jeremiah Smith | WR | Ohio State | 1 |
| 3 | Miami Dolphins | Leonard Moore | CB | Notre Dame | 2 |
| 4 | Philadelphia Eagles | Dylan Stewart | EDGE | South Carolina | 15 |
| 5 | Arizona Cardinals | Colin Simmons | EDGE | Texas | 3 |
| 6 | Tennessee Titans (from Jets, trade) | Jordan Seaton | OT | LSU | 11 |
| 7 | New Orleans Saints | Xavier Gilliam | DT | Tennessee | Not in first round |
| 8 | Tennessee Titans (from Jets, trade) | Will Echoles | DT | Ole Miss | 10 |
| 9 | Washington Commanders | Charlie Becker | WR | Indiana | 4 |
| 10 | Las Vegas Raiders | Chris Cole | LB | Georgia | 7 |
Why the Jets move up for Mestemaker
The Jets hold three first-round picks that could all land in the top 15, and Baumgardner uses two of them to make sure they get the quarterback they want. Mestemaker, a 20-year-old who began his career as a walk-on at North Texas, led the FBS with 4,379 passing yards in 2025 and has kept climbing since transferring to Oklahoma State, where he beat Oregon 39-31 in September. Baumgardner calls him the top quarterback in the class and points to his big frame, strong arm, athleticism and confidence.
It is a sharp rise in Baumgardner’s own rankings. On October 7, he had Mestemaker 13th, behind Notre Dame’s CJ Carr at No. 5, Oregon’s Dante Moore at No. 6 and Texas’s Arch Manning at No. 12. None of those three makes this top 10. Moore’s season is over after a concussion, Carr is still playing, and Manning has had an uneven year. Miami’s Darian Mensah, a top-10 player on many boards, is also left out.
Smith and Moore go two and three
With the Jets jumping ahead of them, the Chargers take Ohio State receiver Jeremiah Smith at No. 2 to give Justin Herbert another weapon, and Miami takes Notre Dame cornerback Leonard Moore at No. 3. Baumgardner calls Smith the best player in college football and describes Moore, at 6-foot-2 and nearly 200 pounds, as a dominant press corner with high-level ball skills.
Two edge rushers follow. Philadelphia takes South Carolina’s Dylan Stewart, a 6-foot-5, 245-pounder who served a one-game suspension earlier this month and forced two fumbles in his return at Florida, at No. 4, up 11 spots from the October 7 mock. Arizona takes Texas’s Colin Simmons at No. 5. Simmons has 10.5 sacks and 16 tackles for loss and is dealing with a high ankle sprain.
A Tennessee defensive tackle goes seventh
The biggest riser is Tennessee’s Xavier Gilliam, who was not in Baumgardner’s first round three weeks ago and now goes to New Orleans at No. 7. “One of the biggest risers in the country this season, the 6-foot-2, 305-pound Gilliam, a true junior who transferred from Penn State, already has put up six sacks with 28 pressures, 18 hurries and a whopping 16 run stops,” Baumgardner wrote. “That’s truly insane production for a defensive tackle.”
Gilliam is also moving up elsewhere. He jumped into the top five of Charlie Campbell’s October 28 big board, and the five-analyst three-round mock from October 29 sent him to the Titans with Chicago’s pick at No. 25.
What the trade means for the Titans
Baumgardner’s mock shows one way Tennessee could use the extra capital from the Simmons trade: instead of taking a quarterback or a receiver at the top, the Titans add a starting tackle and a replacement for Simmons in the middle of the defensive line, plus extra picks this year and next. Washington takes Indiana receiver Charlie Becker at No. 9, and Las Vegas takes Georgia linebacker Chris Cole at No. 10.
Texas tackle Trevor Goosby, a top-10 pick on October 7, is not in the top 10 after his season-ending knee injury. The draft runs April 29 to May 1 in Washington.
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