One Analyst Sees Garrett Nussmeier and Ty Simpson Close In Evaluation
Benjamin Solak might have just tipped his hand.
While on ESPN’s “NFL Draft Daily”, he dropped a pretty interesting comparison:
“If you like Ty Simpson … you should also like Garrett Nussmeier a few rounds later.”
“If you like Ty Simpson … you should also like Garrett Nussmeier a few rounds later.”
—@BenjaminSolak on the LSU quarterback’s draft stock 🏈 pic.twitter.com/dSWXqjUwSj
— NFL on ESPN (@ESPNNFL) April 3, 2026
It’s not some flashy hot take, but it says a lot. Basically, if you think Simpson is worth going early, why not wait and grab someone like Nussmeier later?
That idea would’ve sounded pretty normal a year ago. Then 2025 happened.
Nussmeier came into the season with real expectations, having first-round buzz, face-of-the-program type stuff at LSU. Instead, it just never fully clicked. He dealt with injuries, the play was up and down, and LSU as a whole didn’t live up to the hype either.
By the end of it, the numbers weren’t great. LSU had a PFSN CFB Offensive Impact score of only 76.1, and the team was sitting at 7-5, having all its preseason momentum gone.
But now things are shifting again.
He’s healthier, and more importantly, he’s looked like himself during the pre-draft process. Winning MVP at the Senior Bowl definitely got people’s attention, and he followed it up with a solid Combine performance. Nothing crazy, but enough to remind teams why they liked him in the first place.
At this point, he’s not being talked about in that top tier anymore. But he’s also not that far off, depending on who you ask.
And that’s kind of what makes him interesting.
There’s still a lot to like. He’s got the background, he sees the field well, and we’ve already seen flashes of high-level play from him before things went sideways last season. So teams aren’t looking at a total project here; they’re looking at someone who’s shown he can do it.
That’s where the value comes in. On PFSN’s consensus big board, he’s ranked QB3, but with his stock appearing more likely a little later in the draft, that’s a bargain.
If he ends up going somewhere in that late Day 2 or early Day 3 range, you’re talking about a low-risk swing on a quarterback who, not that long ago, people thought could go much earlier.
And if he lands in the right situation, where he doesn’t have to play right away and can just settle in, it’s not hard to see a path where he outperforms where he’s drafted.
That’s basically what Solak is getting at.
In a draft where quarterbacks always get pushed up the board, sometimes the smarter move is waiting and taking the one who slipped a little further than he probably should have.
Nussmeier might end up being that guy this year.
