After Fernando Mendoza was named the Heisman Trophy winner and won the national championship at Indiana last season, you’d think he’d be the consensus best quarterback in the draft.
Not to Dan Orlovsky.
On Monday, Orlovsky appeared on ESPN’s “Get Up” and explained why he thinks Alabama’s Ty Simpson is actually the best signal-caller of the 2026 class.
For the former NFL quarterback, it comes down to Simpson doing more with less and making more “real NFL throws” than Mendoza.
“I think when we look at the body of work and what was asked of these two quarterbacks, you have to start with the question, who needed to do more to carry their football team to play well? Ty Simpson and it’s not close between those two quarterbacks,” Orlovsky said.
Still, that doesn’t mean he believes Simpson should go No. 1 overall to the Raiders. He just thinks a team that drafts Simpson lower in the first round will get more bang for its buck.
And he does think Mendoza and Simpson are “close” on downfield throws, go routes and RPOs.
“When it comes to moments of panic and big throws, real NFL throws, I think it’s clearly Ty Simpson,” Orlovsky said. “I like Mendoza, but I would rather have Ty Simpson at the 15-20 range than Fernando Mendoza at 1.”
The claim sparked some criticism that Orlovsky was being paid by agencies to damage Mendoza’s draft stock.
He shot down those accusations on Tuesday in an appearance on the “Pat McAfee Show,” even saying that not everyone thinks Mendoza is QB1.
“I’m not nearly important enough to CAA financially for them to pay me to say something about a guy who might be the 20th pick in the draft,” he said. “There’s no ulterior motive behind this.”
Much of the allure of Mendoza over Simpson is that Mendoza has more starting experience. Additionally, he stands at 6-foot-5 to Simpson’s 6-foot-1.
In his first year as a starter this season with the Crimson Tide, Simpson passed for 3,567 yards and 28 touchdowns and only had five picks. He added 93 rushing yards, a low total for someone his size.
In previous years, Simpson backed up current Seahawks quarterback Jalen Milroe.
Mendoza, meanwhile, has two straight years as a starter between Cal and Indiana. Mendoza totaled 3,535 yards, 41 passing touchdowns and six interceptions, and won the Heisman with nearly 1,000 more points than second-place finisher Diego Pavia.
Still, if Orlovsky had his pick, he’d choose Simpson.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
