Two weeks of college football aren't enough to make sweeping declarations about the 2027 quarterback class, but they can give us a glimpse of what the future might hold, both for the next few months and maybe even the next few years. It's why we all made a mental note to see how Drew Mestemaker and Oklahoma State stacked up against Dante Moore and Oregon in Week 2. One quarterback dominated at North Texas before transferring; the other could have parlayed a strong 2025 season into the No. 2 overall pick in the 2026 draft.
On paper, the Ducks should have won. In reality, they slept through their second straight game, and this listless performance ended with a well-deserved upset loss, 39-31. Mestemaker threw for 317 yards and two touchdowns, ran for another 109 yards and a score and, on first viewing, outplayed Moore.
I should reiterate, Moore entered the season as my QB1 and the No. 1 player on my big board. Moore rallied after a rough start and made some impressive throws — much like he did against Boise State last week — but this was Mestemaker's statement game. What does this mean in the scheme of things?
Not a whole helluva lot, honestly. Mestemaker looked overwhelmed against Tulsa in his debut and then bounced back to be the best player on the field against the Ducks. Moore, meanwhile, has a season's worth of really good tape, but so far through two games in 2026, he's been far less consistent than he was a year ago.
Instead of making some grand declaration, the better exercise is going back to what I saw last season, what former Titans GM Ran Carthon — my co-host on With the First Pick — and I saw during summer scouting, and what I wrote back in August before the season. Essentially: identifying exactly what both quarterbacks needed to show us in '26 and then asking whether anything we've seen so far has changed our minds. Moore entered the season as QB1 because he's as good as anyone in the class (it's also why he would've been the No. 2 overall pick back in April).
His ability to push the ball downfield stood out on tape (his big-time-throw rate on deep balls ranked in the 99th percentile in '25), but so did the drop-off when he had to get beyond his first read or when the pocket became compressed. His 2025 second-read passing grade was 63.5, according to PFF, while his passing grade fell from 92.6 in a clean pocket to 51.0 under pressure. Mestemaker's evaluation heading into the season looked very different.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
