Dan Orlovsky is hyping Ty Simpson because he believes he’s the best quarterback in the NFL Draft, not because CAA is telling him to.
While the overwhelming consensus is that Fernando Mendoza is the best quarterback in the 2026 NFL Draft, which will likely be reflected in the Las Vegas Raiders selecting him first overall next month, Orlovsky is not ready to submit. In recent weeks and months, Orlovsky has maintained that the gap between Mendoza and Ty Simpson is smaller than most analysts are claiming. And the more tape Orlovsky watches, the more he claims to love Simpson, recently calling him the “best quarterback in this class.”
As Orlovsky struggles to recruit analysts who share his view that Simpson is the better quarterback prospect than Mendoza, there’s been a growing online narrative that his analysis is being influenced by CAA. Orlovsky and Mendoza are both represented by CAA.
Tuesday afternoon, Orlovsky joined The Pat McAfee Show, where he was pressed on his admiration for Simpson and whether CAA has anything to do with it. But Orlovsky insisted CAA is not encouraging him to simp for Simpson.
Dan Orlovsky responds to claims that he prefers Ty Simpson to Fernando Mendoza because of his CAA affiliation.
“There’s no ulterior motive behind this”pic.twitter.com/S5Eh4igxSa
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) March 24, 2026
“I see a lot of the things that get said, I don’t address them all. But the agents work for us, not the other way around,” Orlovsky said. “They’re employed by us, respectfully, that’s how the business model is. CAA is a very big agency; they have a lot of people.”
“I would just say 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,” Orlovsky continued. “I don’t make enough money for them to pay me money to say that. But people can think what they want. There is no motive behind this, there is no ulterior motive behind this.”
The Pat McAfee Show, which airs from Indiana, where Mendoza starred in college, continued to shame Orlovsky for hyping Simpson. But Orlovsky insisted this is what the tape is telling him, as he has throughout the offseason.
Maybe Orlovsky sees something few analysts appear to see in Simpson. Or maybe he just sees that the reward outweighs the risk, so now he should consider Simpson QB1 over Mendoza. A few years from now, if he’s ultimately proven right, Orlovsky can point to that time he picked Simpson when few others were willing to. But if he’s proven wrong, this pre-draft analysis is not going to be harped on as a means of discrediting his media career.