The New York Jets have done a lot of work on Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson ahead of the 2026 NFL draft.
One of the biggest criticisms of Simpson is his limited resume. He has only had 15 career college starts. If you look at the data from a historical perspective, there hasn’t been a lot of success from quarterbacks with that level of limited experience.
“Since 2011, six of the seven first-round quarterbacks with fewer than 17 college starts didn’t pan out in the NFL: Jake Locker (12), Christian Ponder (12), Anthony Richardson Sr. (13), Mitchell Trubisky (13), Blaine Gabbert (13), and Dwayne Haskins (14). The lone exception was Cam Newton (14), the 2015 NFL MVP,” ESPN’s Rich Cimini wrote.
On Monday, April 6, I sat down with Oregon State offensive cooridator and quarterbacks coach Mitch Dahlen on “Boy Green Daily.”
Before taking this new gig with the Beavers, Dahlen was in the Alabama quarterback room with Simpson over the last two years.
I asked him what his response was to people who criticize Simpson for his 15 career college starts.
“Obviously, numbers speak for themselves. It’s easy to say that, but then you get around the kid and talk to the kid, and you’re like, okay. That’s why I think he is going to be a first-rounder, with all of these interviews and he is with all of these NFL execs and all these people, and you get the kid on the board and the kid is talking football, and then you’re like ‘Yeah, I’m good,’” Dahlen told me on the podcast.
“I know he’s had 15 [career starts], but he operates like he is at 55 [career starts]. You know what I mean? To me, that is our job as coaches, to get him to a point where, regardless of how many starts they have, if they’re able to master a system like that and talk through just football, I mean, someone is going to take that opportunity to take Ty just off that alone. That 15 has a big asterisk on it because he has been around football his whole life,” Dahlen emphatically said.
Will Simpson Be a 1st Round QB?
One of the biggest storylines heading into April’s draft is where Simpson will go.
It’s a polarizing topic.
In Peter Schrager’s mock draft for ESPN, which he did “based on what” he is hearing. Simpson didn’t go in the first round.
On the consensus big board, Simpson is ranked as the 31st best overall player in this class.
“Like the kid can operate at an NFL level. I mean, to me, that is why Ty is talked about in the first round. He is a first-round quarterback just off his operation alone. What we asked him to do at the line of scrimmage, he is a first-rounder. Then, when you put in the physical attributes and you watch the throws he made, it’s like, yeah, this kid should be one of those first 32 picks,” Dahlen told me on “Boy Green Daily.”
Simpson Impressed Jets With the Mental Game
ESPN’s Rich Cimini revealed some key details from Simpson’s private workout with the Jets.
“They did some classroom work, and from what I understand, no surprise here, he is very impressive on the whiteboard. He is a smart quarterback. The coaches loved him, he is a coach’s kind of quarterback, but is he a scout’s kind of quarterback? There’s a difference. The scouts are looking for the traits: size, arm strength, [and] the speed. That is not where he checks the boxes,” Cimini explained on the “Jets Collective” podcast.
“He checks it with [a] cerebral approach, the ability to get to the line of scrimmage, and do the whole Peyton Manning thing, move guys around, read the defense, read the Mike linebacker — he’s great at that stuff. That is where he really impressed the Jets,” Cimini added.
“I’d be more surprised if someone said he tanked,” coach Dahlen told me on “Boy Green Daily.” “He’d be in my office just drawing plays on the board. We’d be in there as an offensive staff, and I’d come back from my whiteboard and see a bunch of plays that Ty drew on my board. I’d take pictures of them, and a lot of them would end up in the game plan sometimes. He just has a natural feel for the game. Like the plays he was drawing up on my whiteboard when I wasn’t in there, and I came back to my office and said, ‘I could see that. That’s a good play.’ We’d get some of those in. The thing I love about him is he sees the game like a coach.”
Dahlen explained to me that they put a lot on Simpson’s plate. They gave him the freedom to diagnose things at the line of scrimmage, and that is a place where Simpson thrived.
“He has been in his dad’s office installing plays since he was like five [years old]. To me, that’s the cool piece, with his brother and his dad, Jason; he has been ready for these moments before he put a helmet on. He has been around it his whole life, which is awesome,” Dahlen added.
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