Ty Simpson heads into this week's NFL Combine as the consensus No. 2 quarterback in the 2026 draft class.
That's a spot that he will be desperately trying to hold onto, with little hope that he can move up to the QB1 spot.
Because that spot is occupied by Indiana Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza, who led the Hoosiers to a perfect season and the program's first national championship. He's the overwhelming favorite to not only be the top quarterback selected, but the No. 1 overall pick once the Las Vegas Raiders are officially on the clock in late April.
But ESPN analyst Dan Orlovsky doesn't see the separation that others do when he watches the tape, at least after watching Mendoza's first eight games at Indiana, which is a caveat that must be mentioned because the Hoosiers QB certainly played his best ball down the stretch of the season.
In fact, Orlovsky went so far as to call Simpson's tape from the first half of the season "significantly more impressive" than Mendoza's.
"Through eight games, you see good, but there's a lot of underwhelming," Orlovsky said of Mendoza's tape. ..."There's not a lot of big-time throws, there's a lot of clean pockets, there's a ton of RPOs and back-shoulder fades. ...There's moments where you see his first read is not there, he's spooked with his feet, and he becomes a runner unnecessarily.
"Ty Simpson's tape from Alabama, through the first eight games of the season, I think is significantly more impressive than Fernando Mendoza's."
Dan Orlovsky likes Ty Simpson's tape from the first half of the season more than Fernando Mendoza's
Orlovsky's statement will lead to a ton of ridicule, but it's not really even that controversial. It's not really even a knock on Mendoza to say Simpson's tape from the first eight games of the season was better.
Through eight games, Simpson was playing better than any quarterback in college football and was firmly in the Heisman Trophy discussion. He battled injuries, and a late-season illness, that saw his play drop off down the stretch.
But from Week 2 through October, Simpson was as good as anyone, and that tape is what will have NFL teams willing to spend a first-round pick on him in the draft despite his struggles down the stretch and his limited experience as a starter.