The Pittsburgh Steelers last spent a first-round pick on a quarterback in 2022, and that wasn’t successful. Kenny Pickett was traded away after only two seasons, and the Steelers haven’t had consistent quarterback play since Ben Roethlisberger retired. Once again, they have a question mark at that position. That’s led to some speculation that they could take a swing at a quarterback in the first round of the draft again. Alabama’s Ty Simpson has been mentioned a lot as a potential target, but Chris Simms isn’t sure if he’ll make it to their pick at 21.
“When you watch Ty Simpson’s best games, and you watch some of those middle-of-the-season games, and then you watch Fernando Mendoza, there’s not that much of a difference,” Simms said Monday on his Unbuttoned podcast. “In fact, there’s certain things that Ty Simpson does, I go, that’s better than Mendoza. Ty Simpson was asked to carry the team, move around, and make plays.
“They had no running game. They couldn’t play defense. I feel like everyone’s [saying] right now, ‘He’ll be on the board for Pittsburgh in the 20s.’ I want to go, I don’t know about that. I think as time goes on here, people are starting to go, ‘What? He’s better than that. He’s going before that.'”
Mendoza is the best quarterback in this year’s draft, and he seems penciled in to go at number one overall. However, Simpson’s range seems more uncertain, largely because he’s a tough prospect to evaluate.
Simpson spent his entire four-year college career at Alabama, but he only has one year of starting experience. That leaves a small sample size of only 15 games to work with. Simpson ended the 2025 season with 3,567 passing yards, 28 touchdowns, and five interceptions. That’s a solid year in totality, but more context is important.
Simms is correct that the first half of Simpson’s season was impressive. He looked like one of the best quarterbacks in the country. However, he flamed out down the stretch. Four of his five interceptions came in the second half of the season, and Indiana blew out Alabama in the playoffs.
However, it might not be fair to blame all of that on Simpson. Injuries seemed to take a toll on him, and he also reportedly dealt with an illness late in the year that caused him to lose a significant amount of weight. That helps explain the dip in his quality of play.
Quarterback is the most valuable position in the draft. It’s easy to find examples of players, like Pickett, who teams drafted too high just because they’re quarterbacks. If a team believes in Simpson’s potential now that he’s healthy, Simms’ prediction could come true.
That might force the Steelers to wait another year to find their next franchise quarterback. That’s not ideal, but they can still improve their roster. Maybe that will give them a better chance at competing for a Super Bowl when they do draft a quarterback in the first round.
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