The Jets have three quarterback paths in front of them, and each one says something different about how the organization wants to operate.
CJ Carr of Notre Dame brings the steady route. Trinidad Chambliss of Ole Miss offers the wild-card swing. And then there’s Oklahoma State’s Drew Mestemaker, the one with the biggest upside and the kind of profile that could change the conversation entirely.
Carr is the polished option, the quarterback who feels built for stability. He’s mature, refined, intelligent, and looks like the safest bet if New York wants a classic NFL passer.
Chambliss is the more volatile choice, but not without appeal. His athleticism and playmaking juice are traits the Jets have never really had at quarterback.
The catch is obvious: at six-foot-even, there’s no guarantee the game translates to the next level. If it does, though, it could be the kind of move that alters a franchise.
And if the Jets went that direction, it would signal a sharp and welcome change in how they’ve done business.
Mestemaker, though, is the home run.
At six-foot-four and 220 pounds, he has the look. He wears No.
- He plays for a school with the Cowboys mascot.
He also brings the big arm, the rushing threat, and the same sort of underdog edge that keeps popping up in his story.
The comparison that jumps out is Josh Allen, and it starts with the origin story. Mestemaker spent high school behind a highly touted quarterback prospect.
He also handled some defensive back work and punting duties, but he never made a start. Zero starts.
That was his entire high school career.
He walked on at North Texas anyway and landed as the fifth-string quarterback. By the end of his freshman year, he had climbed the depth chart. Then, the week of the team’s bowl game, a transfer announcement from the starter pushed Mestemaker into the lineup for the first time.
It was his first start at quarterback. Ever.
Not just in college. In life.
And it came in a bowl game.
He answered it by throwing for nearly 400 yards, tossing two touchdowns, and adding a 70-yard touchdown run.
The next season, he started every game and led all of college football in passing. In 2026, he followed his head coach to Oklahoma State as a transfer.
That kind of move usually sets off alarms for me, but in this case, the fact that he went with his coach makes it easier to understand. And if you want another reason to buy in, look at what he did at North Texas: an 11-2 record, a national ranking, and somehow an invite to the Isleta New Mexico Bowl.
No disrespect to the Mean Green or the Isleta community, but at that point, it’s not about school loyalty-it’s about giving yourself a chance.
Now, seven games into his second season at quarterback, Mestemaker has piled up 7,167 passing yards, 56 touchdown passes, and another eight scores on the ground.
The ceiling is obvious. The question is the experience.
That’s the catch with Mestemaker. He’s still new to the position, and that matters.
Quarterback is the most demanding mental job in sports, and plenty of gifted athletes have fallen short because the processing part never caught up. Physical tools matter, but they’re not the whole deal.
There’s no concern about what Mestemaker can do physically. The issue is that he’s only had a sliver of time actually playing quarterback, and that makes him a calculated bet.
The other unknown is the personality piece, which is harder to pin down because the sample size is still so small. As the college season moves deeper into the stretch run, there should be more chances to learn who he is. He’ll likely be in Heisman conversations, postseason races, and, at some point, in a one-on-one with Laura Rutledge.
From the outside, he comes across as reserved, maybe even shy. Then again, that might just be what a young quarterback looks like before he’s had time to fully grow into the job. Quiet doesn’t have to mean passive.
There have been moments when he’s flashed a harder edge-little stares at teammates, little bursts of force that suggest a silent intensity underneath it all.
For the Jets, that ceiling is the whole point. Mestemaker is the kind of swing that makes sense if New York is serious about trying to get this right. Even if he misses, the decision itself would show the organization is finally taking the right kind of shot.
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