Cowboys Insider: Enjoy Drew Mestemaker While You Can, Oklahoma State Fans

Every week that Oklahoma State Cowboys quarterback Drew Mestemaker throws the football is another week that he gets closer to leaving for the NFL draft.

Before Saturday's game with Iowa State, ESPN's Pete Thamel posted an article that re-surveyed 25 NFL personnel people about which quarterback they felt would be the first selected in the NFL draft.

Two months prior the scouts were asked that same question. None of them selected Mestemaker. This time? Seventeen of them did. Yes, 17 of the 25 NFL personnel people surveyed two months apart agreed that Mestemaker, if the draft was held now, would be QB 1.

What happened? Two significant things.

Drew Mestemaker’s NFL Draft Stock Rises

Oklahoma State Cowboys quarterback Drew Mestemaker sings the OSU alma mater with teammates after a game. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

It was easy to punch holes in his draft status for 2027 at the beginning of the season. After all, even though he threw for 4,379 yards and 32 touchdowns at North Texas in 2025, he didn't face a single power conference team. Sure, he was going to play for the same head coach and play-caller, Eric Morris. But that lack of competition stuck out.

Tape tells you a lot of things. Morris raved about Mestemaker’s mechanics, his decision making and his ability to process information quickly, both in the scouting leading up to the game and in the game itself. Those are all traits that scouts can pick up on tape.

But scouts also love to punch holes in players. And the easy the easiest hole to punch in Mestemaker was the lack of competition.

Remember that Week 2 game against Oregon? That press box was filled with scouts. Heck, Atlanta Falcons president of football operations Matt Ryan showed up. It was the place to be. But the reality is many of those scouts were there to see Oregon’s Dante Moore and not Mestemaker. By the end of the game, that changed.

Now we're eight games into the season. Mestemaker has thrown for 300 or more yards in seven straight games. He's coming off a huge game against Iowa State in which he threw five touchdown passes for the first time this season. His numbers are on pace to eclipse what he did at North Texas last season.

He’s thrown for 2,649 yards with 25 touchdown passes and seven interceptions. The passing yardage is second in FBS. The touchdown passes are tied for first.

NFL teams now have eight games worth of tape on Mestemaker this season. Six of those games are against power conference teams. He's thrown for 300 or more yards against each of them. That's only part of the reason for his rise.

The other reason is that the quarterbacks that were ahead of him have lost their luster to some degree. Moore was the leading vote-getter (14) in August but only received one vote this time around. He is out for the season after suffering a serious concussion on a dirty hit against USC. Notre Dame’s CJ Carr received four votes after getting just one last time around, while Miami’s Darian Mensah entered the chat with three votes.

I once covered the NFL for four years. Having talked to enough scouts, this quick rise tells me that many scouts liked what they saw from Mestemaker’s tape in 2025 but were unwilling to invest in saying they liked him because he hadn't faced a power conference team yet. Now that he has a body of work against high level defenses and has shown success, they're more willing to put their name on it. Anonymously, that is.

This is how the game works. Scouts like to hedge their bets. They don't want to go out on a limb that early on a player that doesn't have a track record against high level competition. They love his story. How could you not? But scouts aren't evaluating a story. They're evaluating a player.

What they see right now, they like. And with every game he throws for 300 or more yards and three or four more touchdowns, it takes him one step closer to leaving for the NFL draft. The class doesn't look as stacked as it did a couple of months ago. The teams that will be in the Top 5 of the draft will need a quarterback.

Mestemaker may want to come back to Oklahoma State for another season. But if one is being honest, the way things are developing this season, it may be in his best interest to go to the NFL after the season.

The good news is he can decide from a position of strength. He should be coming off a great season, and he can evaluate the merits of staying with the Cowboys in 2027 or moving on to the NFL.

Based on how he's playing and how the class is shaping up, Cowboys fans should enjoy what they're watching. It's some of the best quarterback play they've seen in years. And come early January, I think Mestemaker will post a message to social media thanking Cowboys fans for their support as he heads for the NFL Draft.

Honestly, I hope he surprises us. But it’s looks less likely with every game.

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