Ty Simpson should not be picked in 1st round of 2026 NFL draft

In the 2025 NFL draft, Shedeur Sanders became the dominant story at quarterback, falling all the way to the fifth round, roughly 140 spots lower than a lot of projections. In the 2026 NFL draft, the most likely candidate for a "mystery quarterback," someone whose position is either hard to pin down or who could fall a lot, is Ty Simpson of Alabama. Let's discuss this intriguing prospect and what NFL teams should do with him:

Injury question

Ty Simpson was clearly not 100-percent healthy late last season at Alabama. That undeniably hampered his performance. It will be the main reason some experts think NFL teams should be willing to take a chance on Simpson late in the first round ... and maybe one team will. That has to be acknowledged in the larger conversation surrounding the Alabama signal-caller.

Win at Georgia

Simpson made some impressive plays in the early and middle portions of the 2025 college football season at Alabama, and the win at Georgia was a highlight of Simpson's season. However, as we saw in two games against Ole Miss and in other games from last season, Georgia's defense was nowhere close to the typical or expected Kirby Smart standard. Ty Simpson didn't beat the 2021 UGA defense; he beat the 2025 defense. There's a Grand Canyon-sized gap between those two units.

Loss to Oklahoma

Alabama beat Oklahoma in the College Football Playoff (more on that later), but it lost to the Sooners in Tuscaloosa. Simpson was going up against a very limited OU offense. His main task was to not turn the ball over. He couldn't do it. That game could be a preview of what Simpson's NFL reality will look like, even when accounting for injuries that limited Simpson's effectiveness. That was a time for a quarterback to be a responsible game manager and let his defense win the game. Simpson couldn't do it. That game should set off alarm bells for NFL teams.

Win versus Oklahoma

When Alabama beat Oklahoma in the rematch between the two teams in the CFP, it's not as though Simpson played great. That result, and Alabama's comeback from a double-digit deficit, were products of the mistakes made by the other quarterback in that game, OU's John Mateer. That game was not a showcase for Simpson, but an affirmation of how mediocre Oklahoma's offense was.