Simms’ draft QB rankings: Simpson 'clear' No. 2
Chris Simms analyzes the game of Ty Simpson, discusses the strengths and weaknesses of the Alabama quarterback.
Video Transcript
He's the consensus number one.
Yes.
See, I, I, I always look forward to you defying convention- Yeah with your assessment.
But this year there isn't a lot of mystery- No 'cause number two is the guy that everybody has at number two, Ty Simpson.
No, it's not a great class.
That's not what it is.
It's not.
Now, there's some guys here at three, four, five that, my I probably will be different than.
I will, you know, because at three, four, five I look at guys, again, and I'm a little bit more on, you know, oh, I know this guy has better film and he made better decisions, but he doesn't have the talent to ever be a starting quarterback or maybe even a backup.
He's a third stringer.
You know, I, I'm looking at guys that I think can start in the NFL.
That's really how I evaluate it.
That's what I do.
So I think my three, four, five in a year where, yes, it's not the greatest class in the world, I, I think peoples' are gonna be different and, and mine will probably be different, but Ty Simpson is clearly number two.
There's no que- It's Fernando Mendoza, one.
It's Ty Simpson, number two.
It's end of story.
The question is, is does Ty Simpson sneak his way into the first round somehow?
There's not a ton of spots when you really look at it.
Yeah, there's the Steelers at 21, right?
The Cardinals need a quarterback.
They're not gonna take him in the top five, that's not.
Will the Cardinals at 34 trade up and get into the late first round and then get a Ty Simpson, something like that?
Maybe.
That's what we're gonna see.
Now, there's some things to really like about Ty Simpson.
I mean, first off, he is a high level athlete.
That's the one thing you see.
But he plays small.
He's smaller.
You know, we just talked about Mendoza who's, you know, sitting there at, at, at 6'5", 2- 235.
And then you got a guy here in, in Ty Simpson who's it's 6'1", it's 210 pounds.
At the end of the year, it probably looked like he was 190 pounds.
We talked about that at the combine.
But the athletic ability, he makes a lot of power throws.
He makes a lot of unbelievable backyard throws, where, you know, body's in weird position and then he still throws the ball on a 15 or 20 yard out and puts the ball on the money.
They actually asked more of him than Mendoza was asked to do in Indiana.
I mean, that's the thing with Ty Simpson.
They had no running game, they weren't great on defense, so they asked him to make a lot of power plays and throws.
His mechanics are pretty do- good, Mike.
Like I said, he can run, he can scramble, he can play backyard football.
I don't love his throwing motion, and I think his throwing motion is what led to the ball being a little all over the place at the end of the year.
Like we always talk about, turning the shoulder, coming around a little bit more.
He's got one of these motions that's a little more vertical.
It's all about premised on, ooh, if I g- if I release it at the right spot, I'm great.
But if it's a little off, the ball might sail or it might nosedive in the ground, and that's hard to live that way.
So I think he could become a little bit more of a machine that way.
but, but, you know, again, playing quarterback at Alabama, he's shown the ability to anticipate, but he more not- more than not wants to see it and then throw it.
But my biggest thing with him is I like the talent, I like the athlete, but he does play small and I do really worry about him in the NFL week 10, and he's been beat up, and he's 6'1", 192 pounds.
And now he's not as fast and explosive 'cause he's beat up.
The arm's a little lackluster 'cause he's beat up and not the same way, and I think that's the thing that teams are gonna have to get used to here.
He's got like Drew Brees-ish, Kirk Cousins, right?
Kind of reminds me of them to a degree.
Bo Nix, but he's a lesser version of Bo Nix.
Bo Nix is a little bit bigger.
I like Bo Nix's arm and his motion better, but it's similar to that.
And I looked at it, and I go, man, this is a guy I think can go anywhere from 15 to 35, Mike, in this draft.
So he's gonna be interesting to see where he falls here.
there's some thought the Steelers are lurking- Yeah there at 21.
Yeah.
Watching and waiting, but they did it with Kenny Pickett four years ago and it didn't work out.
Maybe they're thinking, "Let's flip the coin again.
Last time it came up tails.
This time maybe it comes up heads," or vice versa.
Maybe.
Whichever is good.
This guy has more play making abil- You know, you remember my thoughts with Kenny Pickett, right?
Where I was just like, I, I You know, listen, I know he can run the offense, but there's nothing he does that's special at all.
I mean, nothing.
T- Ty Simpson does have some abilities where you go, "Ooh, man.
Whoa.
Okay."
Right?
It's not perfect, but at the same time, I also do look at it, and I don't mean to be like a jerk about this, but I think this is real.
I think you're gonna have s- you know, some teams that are gonna go, "Wait.
We're W- w- whoa.
This is the guy?
We're gonna He's, he's, you know, he's not the most, 'Whoa, look at, there's our starting quarterback,' right?
Wait, we're gonna take this guy who's 6'1", 2- 210 on his best day?
he's gonna be the 21st pick of the draft?
w- he played one year of college football?"
That, that's the things teams are gonna have to overcome in their mind with their evaluation and the player and all that, and I'll be interested to see where that goes.
Run me through very quickly 'cause we got- Yeah more to get to.
Yeah.
Sorry.
Take me through three, four, and five very quickly.
Well, I'm, I'm The one that's gonna be I'm totally different on is gonna be the Baron Morton of, of Texas Tech.
Baron Morton's kind of the one that I, I fell in love with that was, like, not on my radar.
I watched him in the college season.
I'm went, ooh, I like his motion.
And then I watched the combine and I went, man, he's one of the better throwers of the combine.
And then, you know, I watched two games and I went, ooh, these games are intriguing.
Like, whoa, this guy makes a lot of big throws.
I mean, he makes as many big and wow throws as Mendoza and Ty Simpson.
Throws the ball outside the numbers, right?
Can throw the ball any way he wants.
So he was the guy that really jumped out to me.
He's 6'3", 6'2 and a half.
He's 223, 24 pounds.
So yeah, I liked him.
He gives me, you know, Matt Stafford type vibes with the way he throws the football and that.
I So I'm gonna be higher on him.
Joey Aguilar, an- another big, got some talent, is an athlete.
He's got a really strong arm.
He's gotta fix a few things with his motion, so is another guy I like.
But again, when I look at Morton and Aguilar, I look at guys that I go, not only could they be really good backups for a while, they have some traits and physical traits to maybe be a starting quarterback.
And then there's Garrett Nice-Meyer at number five who had a great, you know, junior year, but last year it really fell off.
He can really throw it.
He's a pretty good athlete.
But again, it's a guy that's 6'2", 201 pounds.
He's not a, the, the most elusive guy in the world, but he can make people miss in the pocket and do all that.
But the film last year was, a- as you know, really bad.
he, he has a lot of bad decisions, you know, off, off-target throws.
He dealt with an injury and all that, so that's where this, this class is very interesting.
But yeah, Morton and Aguilar are guys that I think I'm probably gonna be higher on than the rest of the, the group, of draft experts out there, Mike.Well, we will see how it all plays out.
Yeah.
It's only 37 days away- I know, man until the 2026 NFL Draft begins, just up the road from me in Pittsburgh.
Boom.
Countdown clock.
There it is.
Boom.
It's there.
There it is.
All right.
And, you know, somebody asked me if we're gonna do the shows in Pittsburgh since I'm so close.
It's like, well, half of the show is close, the other half is still- 500 miles away.
Right.
So close for me, not close for Chris, so probably not.
But I do feel compelled to drive up there at some point, maybe not the first night, maybe the second night, or maybe just the third day, and just kinda hang out.
Be one of the, one of the people that gets added to the, the inflated numbers that somehow go up on Saturday.
Yeah.
Somehow more people are there on Saturday than there are on Thursday or Friday.
All right.
But it's gonna be a good time, and they're very excited about the draft in Pittsburgh.
They have taken the absolute reality show about nothing and turned it into something, and every city wants to host it, and they're very excited.
When you- when it's your turn, you're very excited, and they're very excited in Pittsburgh.
All right, let's take a break.
We'll have more PFT Live right after this.
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