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Ty Simpson
Simpson is polarizing due to circumstance more than ability. His draft stock is all over the map. The player loosely expects to go anywhere from 10 to 30 in the first round, but it's hard to confidently project a home for him yet. Positional needs could push him above his grade, but enough scouts have a second-round grade on him to make early Day 2 a possibility.
Simpson's lack of starts is the primary concern. He started one year in an era when many quarterback prospects have two to four years of production. He played well through the first two months of the 2025 season and struggled late.
"I don't think anything about him other than him being a one-year player is supremely polarizing," an AFC executive said. "There's not a good history of it, but I think you've got to take each guy as an individual case.
"I don't think anyone expects him to come in right away and be great. If picked in the 20s, he'll get experience and reps and get legs under him. He's a good kid, a coach's kid, had a lot of good production and success. Maybe not on the same tier as top guys, but he's still a player."
One veteran NFL scout called Simpson "a mix between Jared Goff and Mac Jones." What helps Simpson's cause is what he was asked to do at Alabama.
"He made a lot of NFL throws," an NFL personnel evaluator said. "Some guys were running a glorified high school offense in college, but [Simpson] was throwing deep in-breakers, corners, deep outs, seams, curls."
Drew Allar
This draft does not feature a star-studded quarterback class like the one we saw in 2024, when six passers went in the top 12. Indiana's Fernando Mendoza is at the top, and then teams will pick their flavor.
Where Allar sits in that equation is tough to project due to a tough 2025. Allar struggled with accuracy and played only six games because of a fractured left ankle.
But some NFL evaluators still see major upside in Allar, who once garnered first-round buzz thanks to his 6-5 frame and big arm.
"He's my favorite quarterback in the draft outside of Mendoza," an NFL coordinator said. "In the right system, he can be great. He's got everything as far as tools. His footwork is an absolute mess. But improve his footwork and he can take off. He deserved better than what he got at Penn State."
The coordinator stressed that Allar needs to be in a Kubiak-style system -- which essentially half the NFL uses right now -- to learn proper footwork.
Allar in the 3rd.