Ty Simpson is one of the most polarizing prospects in the upcoming 2026 NFL Draft class. The Alabama Crimson Tide star is the second quarterback in most prospect rankings, but his college football numbers leave more to be desired. The Arizona Cardinals are reportedly interested in trading up in the draft to select him, but Ryan Clark advised them against it.
Ryan Clark Explains Why Cardinals Should Pass on Ty Simpson in First Round
Simpson spent just one season as Alabama’s full-time starting quarterback and posted mixed results. Regardless, he is the consensus number two quarterback in this year’s draft rankings, only trailing Indiana Hoosiers superstar Fernando Mendoza.
The Crimson Tide product didn’t exactly play his best football late in the season last year, but many have speculated it was mostly because he played on an uncharacteristically mediocre Alabama team. Clark acknowledged this in his analysis of the quarterback prospect on ESPN’s “First Take,” but also outlined why that should make him a pass early in the first round.
“Ty Simpson has so much to work on,” Clark said. “Ty Simpson can’t be a dude that goes to a bad football team, because all of those things about who Alabama was last year that contributed to Ty Simpson not playing well down the stretch, if somebody drafts him early, they’re probably going to have some of those same issues.”
The Cardinals are one of the teams rumored to be interested in selecting Simpson, potentially by trading back into the first round after using their third overall pick on another player. Clark disagreed with this hypothetical strategy and explained why Arizona would be better off waiting until later in the draft to address the position.
“So, if you’re the Arizona Cardinals, don’t bid against yourself,” Clark added. “Ain’t nobody else going to pick him in the first round. You wait, and you try to get him later on in the draft… To allow him to accumulate some of the reps that he didn’t get at Alabama. Because when you say, ‘Hey, it was nine games of good football and six games of subpar football,’ We don’t have two other years as a starting quarterback of excellence to compare and contrast that to.”
Clark believes that Simpson’s best chance at success in the NFL is to gain more experience first, especially given his limited playing time at Alabama.
The Super Bowl champion pointed to developing Simpson’s game first as the better long-term strategy than immediately using him as a replacement for Kyler Murray, whom they cut ties with during the offseason.
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For what it’s worth, according to PFSN’s CFB QB Impact Metric, Simpson had an impact score of 85.4, ranking 25th in college football. The Alabama product also comes in as the 46th-ranked prospect on PFSN’s Big Board, so he isn’t exactly being viewed as an elite prospect.
