Ty Simpson Prospect Profile
Background
Ty Simpson, the son of longtime UT Martin Head Football Coach Jason Simpson, was a 2A state champion high school QB at Martin, Tennessee's Westview High School. Ty's phenomenal high school play led him to be the third ranked QB and 25th ranked player in the 247Composite score for high school recruits, in addition to being named the Tennessee Gatorade Player of the Year, and invited to the Elite 11 camp. Simpson then decided to commit to what ended up being Nick Saban's penultimate recruiting class and enrolled early on campus in 2022. He spent the next three seasons as a backup, surviving the coaching change from Saban to DeBoer, and eventually starting in 2025. He decided to declare early with one year of eligibility left, spurning multiple top level NIL deals to return to college, right after his 23rd birthday, and losing to Indiana in the Rose Bowl / CFP Quarter-Final.
Physical Attributes
Simpson stands 6'2" and weighs in at 208 lbs. He does not look big on the field, but he is not small either. He is a very good athlete, with good wiggle that allows him to evade pass rushers and very good speed for the QB position. While not a QB that looks to scramble, having Simpson execute designed runs in the NFL will add a threat to defenses. He has great arm strength from a set position as well. With his feet under him, I saw his longest throw go 60 air yards at full tilt, and consistently over 50 with the ability to be more pinpoint on accuracy. He throws well going left or right, mostly because he has fluid hips that allow him to get solid, if not elite, torque from more unnatural throwing positions. Impossible to deny he is tough, if sometimes needlessly so. He does not look to protect himself on the run that often, but I will never question the toughness and the heart of a player who attempts to make a comeback with cracked ribs against the best team in the country, after already playing a portion of the season with a bulging disc in his back.
Data and Tape Analysis
If you are unfamiliar with my QB radar charts, you can find more information here
The data and tape on Ty Simpson go hand in hand. There are no real contradictions between the two. Which is good in some waysa and bad in others.
Let's start with the good. I already mentioned his arm strength above, but Simpson can go after every blade of grass on the field, and often does so quite accurately. His seam throws and work in the intermediate game are near elite levels for a prospect out of school and are reflected in his 90th percentile PFF OFF ranking for QBs in 2025. The big time throw rate is middling, but that's because his offense did not ask him to do that often, but when it did, Simpson hit it.
His accuracy was also very solid, if often let down by his receivers (what happened to Ryan Williams this year?). Especially before his injuries, Simpson was consistently on the mark, especially when it was in the flow of the offense. Reading the play from primary all the way down to his check down lets him specialize in one of the most important throws in the NFL right now, the backside dig. If that primary was not open, he quickly moved off and found someone to get the ball to who was. His command of the offense was special, and he was even asked to do things a lot of other college QBs do not do, like turning his back to the defense on play actions and having to re-assess the defense on the turn.
Though that play-action game transitions nicely into some of my gripes with Simpson. His ball fakes were poor, and while I know even a bad ball fake can keep a defense honest, the difference between a real handoff and a fake will be easy for NFL level defenses to pick up. Add to that he can sometimes struggle to identify droppers in coverage, or zone defenders who are getting ready to bail on their coverages to stay in the zone, and there could be a recipe for quite a few turnover worthy plays against the NFL's more exotic defenses.
Before I get into what I consider the most worrying part of Simpson's game, though, I have a seemingly small nit to pick. His deep balls, when thrown well, are things of beauty. Perfectly layered and hits his receiver in stride, except when he throws those deep balls left. Short and intermediate throws to the left do not exhibit the same drop off, but he is so much more inconsistent deep and to the left of the field than he is anywhere else.
My biggest worry with Simpson is his pocket presence. He never seems to consistently find an answer under pressure. In fact PFF had him rated as the 67th best QB under pressure last year. If he decided to roll out, he was usually fine, but if he tried to move around the pocket, it seemed more like he was guessing where to go than knowing where to find a safe platform. His throws became much more erratic, and his decision making suffered greatly under pressure as well. Oftentimes, when under more pressure in certain games, it would speed him up and cause his throwing form to fall apart, leaving him over himself at the end of the throw and leading to accuracy issues. These types of issues can be addressed over time, but for a 23 year old with only 15 college starts under his belt, is he going to have the time to figure it out, if he even ever does?
Grade and Outlook
Simpson showed a lot on tape to be excited about. A great arm, high-level processing, and athleticism that showed he could have the stuff to be a very good NFL QB. Though at the end of the day, having started so few games and struggling under pressure, I am left at a crossroads. The value of a good QB is so high that I will always bet on the prospects who exhibit top level traits, but I have to be cautious and recognize that there just is not enough consistent evidence shown by Simpson to prove me otherwise.
Grade: 6.2 (Late 1st / Early 2nd Rounder)
