Ty Simpson mulled $6.5 million transfer portal offer to not enter 2026 NFL Draft

Ty Simpson mulled $6.5 million transfer portal offer to not enter 2026 NFL Draft originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

Former Alabama Crimson Tide quarterback Ty Simpson will be one of the first signal-callers off the board in the 2026 NFL Draft. But there was another offer on the table to keep him in school after from Tuscaloosa.

Simpson recently went into detail about rejecting a $6.5 million offer by Mario Cristobal and Miami for the 2026 season on David Pollack's podcast. What makes the deal significant is that it would've been about $1.5 million more than his pending NFL offer. So, essentially, he turned down a payday for his NFL future.

“I think the last offer was definitely one that I just had to sit down and consider, because it would have been life-changing money,” Simpson said. “It would have made me the highest-paid player in college, and it was something to where I was like, I can’t just ignore this."

However, there's a fine line between chasing a payout and being content. Simpson waited his time and trusted the process at Alabama through a coaching change. He also leaned on his original coach, Nick Saban, for advice.

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“I actually talked to Coach Saban about this,” Simpson said. “The things he was talking about were, do you want to play football in college, or do you want to play football professionally? And he was like, ‘Take the money out of it, take the rounds out of it, what do you want to do next year?’ And without a doubt, without hesitation, I said, ‘I want to play professional football.’ And he was like, ‘Well, there’s your answer.’"

We've come a long way from the days when being a first-round pick carried serious financial weight on a top player's decision to commit to entering the draft. Now NIL money is starting to catch up and be a factor.