While Heisman Trophy and national championship-winning quarterback Fernando Mendoza has deservedly gotten much of the attention as a top NFL Draft prospect, Alabama’s Ty Simpson may not be too far behind the Indiana standout.
Evident by Dan Orlovsky’s claim that “Ty Simpson’s tape from Alabama, through the first eight games of the season, is significantly more impressive than Fernando Mendoza’s,” there are draft evaluators who rate Simpson very highly, possibly as the best quarterback coming out of college. And that seems to be what Simpson himself expects as he takes part in the NFL Combine.
“First off, I think I’m ready, I’m a franchise quarterback,” Simpson said, via ESPNs’ Jeff Legwold. “Alabama prepares you the most for the NFL … The Alabama locker room is as close to an NFL locker room as you can get.”
The combine very well could be a major boon to Simpson’s draft stock. That is, if he does well.
Unlike Mendoza, who plans to just meet with teams, Simpson will be throwing in front of NFL teams this weekend. This will be the first time that he will get an opportunity to show what he can do when healthy since the middle of the Crimson Tide’s season, when his play slipped as he battled through injuries. Over the final six games of the year, Simpson completed just 60.5% of his passes and threw 7 touchdowns and 4 interceptions, as compared to the first nine games, when he posted a 66.9% completion percentage, 23 total touchdowns, and one interception.
Currently, Simpson is almost unanimously projected to be the second quarterback taken off the board, behind Mendoza, when the draft rolls around in April. There are disagreements among the prognosticators, though, as to how long after Mendoza gets selected that Simpson will be.
ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr., in his latest mock draft, slotted Simpson in at No. 21 to the Pittsburgh Steelers. CBS Sports’ Ryan Wilson believes the New York Jets at No. 16 will be where Simpson gets taken, while his colleague, Blake Brockermeyer, has him going to the Los Angeles Rams with the 13th pick.
The NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah and Tankathon recently predicted Simpson will not be selected until Round 2, with the latter mocking him to the Arizona Cardinals at No. 34. Jeremiah, who did not make picks past the first round, prefaced his mock draft by saying, “I still have only one [quarterback] in my mock, but I think it’s fair to say the prospect with the most to gain leading up to the draft is Alabama QB Ty Simpson.”
Simpson and the other participating quarterbacks will go through their combine workouts on Saturday afternoon in Indianapolis.
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