Ty Simpson threw the first interception of his career on Saturday, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t play well in Alabama’s 30-14 win over Vanderbilt. Goal No. 1 for the Crimson Tide was avenging last season’s loss to Diego Pavia and the Commodores, and Simpson took care of that, solidly outplaying his confident counterpart.
Simpson continues to thrive in Ryan Grubb’s offense, and for the first time this season, the Tide had a running game they could count on with Jam Miller rushing for 136 yards in his second game back from injury. Miller became Alabama’s first 100-yard rusher since Jalen Milroe in the 2024 Iron Bowl, and if Alabama has a more balanced attack on offense going forward, Simpson could be even more lethal.
Let’s dive into the redshirt junior’s performance in his fifth career start as Alabama continued to establish itself as the SEC favorite.
Let’s start with the most impressive part of Simpson’s performance against Vanderbilt. He put up huge numbers and continues to be lethal attacking the middle of the field, but it’s how he does it that should have NFL teams begging him to enter the 2026 Draft. Simpson isn’t an RPO merchant; he doesn’t rely on screens to get yards after the catch to put up big numbers. Actually, he prefers to play without all the bells and whistles.
Ty Simpson is a true dropback passer, and in Week 6, he was deadly, averaging 13.8 yards per attempt on dropbacks without play-action to 2.9 with it, and 12.4 yards per attempt without screens, which managed just 3.6 ypa. He went 5-for-6 on throws over 20 yards downfield for 160 yards and two touchdowns, with three big-time throws to just one turnover-worthy play. Even against pressure, he was sharp, connecting on four of his five attempts for 65 yards and a touchdown.
As for his accuracy, Simpson completed 74 percent of his throws, but with two drops, his adjusted completion rate was a staggering 89.3 percent.
Alabama moved the ball in chunks against Vandy, averaging nearly nine yards per dropback with a 12 percent explosive play rate. However, there were a few bad habits that began to crop up for Simpson, which helped derail drives and stall the offense in the red zone, where the Tide uncharacteristically settled for field goals from the 20-yard line, the 13, and the 12.
Simpson took four sacks in the game on just nine pressured dropbacks. He’s a plus athlete and a talented thrower outside of the pocket, but he may be getting a bit overconfident in his escapability after such a hot start to his career. He held onto the ball for the second-longest average time to throw of his season, only trailing Week 1, when he was sacked three times. He didn’t throw the ball away once in Week 6, and hasn’t since Week 1.
Simpson needs to remain decisive and rely on his arm more than his legs. It’s hard to find many faults with the way he’s played, but with a 44 percent pressure-to-sack rate and an interception, it’s also hard to give him a perfect grade for his Week 6 performance. As the run game comes along, he should be more efficient attacking off play-action, and needs to be more effective in the red zone.