Ty Simpson Ripped by NFL Coach Who Wouldn't Draft Him 1st Round, 'He Looks Small. He Plays Small'

Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson continues to generate polarizing evaluations ahead of this week's 2026 NFL draft.

NFL Network's Tom Pelissero spoke to multiple people around the NFL who expressed concerns over Simpson being an undersized quarterback.

"He got his ass kicked by Indiana. They took him out (one drive after) halftime," an AFC QBs coach said. "And he looks small. He plays small. It was all dropbacks, so he didn't get a lot of help there. So maybe he'll be better in those situations. Or maybe he'll be worse. I would not draft him in the first round, second round. I just don't know that he's going to be that good."

"The longer you watch him, you feel a little man," an AFC executive said. "What's he going to look like in our league? History's betting against us here. He gets thrown around. The kid's not very big, he's not very gifted. When he gets sacked, it looks like your dog swinging around their squeaky toy."

The No. 2 quarterback in this year's draft class in the B/R NFL Scouting Department's big board, Simpson stands at 6'1" and weighed in at 211 pounds at the NFL scouting combine. He dealt with a low-back injury and elbow bursitis, suffered from gastritis and dropped under 200 pounds during the 2025 season, causing the Crimson Tide to bottom out after an 8-1 start. He suffered a cracked rib in Alabama's 38-3 blowout loss to Indiana in the Rose Bowl before being removed from the game in the second half.

Despite Simpson's weight gain at the combine, a second AFC exec told Pelissero: "When he walked in our room, he looked like one of the ball boys." An NFC exec added that his impressive traits were overshadowed by his durability issues.

"They've tried to get him to 210, and I think he's really struggled to get there. I think he played in the low 200s and then he got the crap beat out of him in that offense," the exec told Pelissero. "All the dropback and struggling to run the ball. But early on, he was really decisive, he's accurate, he can throw on time, he processed quickly – all those things were really, really encouraging, and then he just fell apart physically."