“We Are Evaluating the QB Position Wrong,” Dan Orlovsky Pounds Table for Ty Simpson in Round 1

Thursday night is where quarterback classes get exposed. Teams spend months saying they need one, scouts spend months arguing about traits versus tape, and then the board tells the truth. That is the backdrop for Ty Simpson, the Alabama quarterback who entered the 2026 NFL Draft as one of the hardest players in the first round to price correctly.

He has one full season as a starter. He also has the kind of late-cycle momentum that kept putting him in the teens, the 20s and the back end of Round 1 in final mocks. Simpson’s file is strong enough to make that push legitimate. Alabama’s official bio credits him with 3,567 passing yards, 28 touchdown passes and five interceptions in 2025, along with permanent-team-captain status and second-team All-SEC honors.

The teams connected to him explain why the first-round conversation never cooled. Reuters reported after Alabama’s pro day that the Jets sent staff to Tuscaloosa, that Simpson had a private workout scheduled with New York, and that the Browns, Steelers and Cardinals had already brought him in for visits. Those are not casual connections. Those are teams doing real quarterback work.

So this story starts with a quarterback-needy league, a thin class behind Fernando Mendoza, and a former Alabama starter whose best stretch of tape was good enough to keep him alive in Round 1 even after evaluators raised questions about experience and his finish to the season.

1. Why Ty Simpson Is the Steal of Round 1

Speaking on ESPN’s Get Up, former NFL quarterback and current ESPN analyst Dan Orlovsky argued that Alabama’s Ty Simpson belongs in Round 1, saying, “If [Ty Simpson’s] not a first-round pick tonight, then we are evaluating, in the NFL, the quarterback position wrong.” Orlovsky’s case was not isolated. Fox Sports reported this week that Jay Glazer was hearing Simpson would be a first-round pick. NFL.com had already pointed in the same direction in its draft coverage. Chad Reuter placed Simpson with the Jets in Round 1 in his seven-round mock, while Bucky Brooks described his landing spot as one of the class’s defining unanswered questions.

2. Ty Simpson’s Record-Shattering Stats That Shocked the SEC And the Glaring Flaw That Could Sink His Draft Stock

Simpson waited three years for the job, then gave evaluators the exact season they needed to reopen the conversation. At Alabama he completed 305 of 473 passes in 15 games, finishing second in the SEC in passing yards and touchdown passes while throwing only five interceptions. He also added two rushing scores. He has 21 touchdown passes to his name against one interception through the first nine games, a stretch that built most of his draft value. That run included 382 yards and four touchdowns against Wisconsin and a 17-for-17 performance against ULM that set the Alabama record for completions without an incompletion and an SEC single-game mark in the same category. The high-end production was enough to put him into national award conversations. Alabama lists Simpson as a Manning Award finalist and notes he appeared on the Walter Camp and Davey O’Brien watch lists during the season. Those details matter in a class where evaluators were already split on how many quarterbacks truly belonged in Round 1. The pushback comes from the same season. NFL analyst Bucky Brooks wrote that Simpson “came back to earth” over the final six games of the year and identified him as one of the biggest wild cards in the class because of his inexperience and late-season slide. That is the part of the file teams had to reconcile with the early tape. That split is why Simpson never settled into one clean draft slot. He was productive enough to be discussed in the first round and incomplete enough to make the second round feel just as plausible. The résumé got him in the room. The limited starting sample kept the room arguing.

3. The Jets, Steelers, and Cardinals Are Secretly Obsessed With Ty Simpson

The team list is where this story gets practical. Reuters reported that the Jets attended Simpson’s pro day and scheduled a private workout with him. The same report said the Steelers and Cardinals had already hosted him on visits, while the Browns had done the same. That is the kind of pre-draft traffic that turns speculation into a real first-round possibility. New York made obvious sense as a fit. The Jets’ own draft preview at quarterback described veteran Geno Smith as the 2026 starter and “a bridge to the future,” language that leaves room for a developmental first-round quarterback behind him. With picks at No. 2 and No. 16, the Jets had both the draft capital and the roster logic to be involved. Pittsburgh also stayed in the discussion because its quarterback picture remained unsettled and because the Steelers had already done in-person work on Simpson. Sporting News’ draft tracker listed quarterback among the team’s major needs entering Round 1, and Reuters named Pittsburgh among the clubs that had hosted him. Arizona kept popping up for two reasons. A top-30 visit and a board flexible enough to make the back end of Round 1 or an early trade-up scenario plausible. The Cardinals brought Simpson in late for a final visit, while the Post’s final mock had him landing at No. 32 via Arizona. Once those teams were attached, Simpson stopped looking like a media-created first-round candidate. He looked like what he was. A quarterback with one year of starting tape, real flaws, and enough interest from real teams to make Round 1 a live possibility all the way into Thursday night.

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