Fernando Mendoza will be the first pick in the 2026 NFL Draft. The Las Vegas Raiders, who will make that selection at the draft in Pittsburgh in April, have not hidden their intentions to tab the Heisman-winning Mendoza with the top pick.
At least one former NFL quarterback and analyst thinks the Raiders are making the wrong selection. Dan Orlovsky, who works for ESPN as a draft and NFL analyst, believes that the best quarterback prospect in the class of 2026 is Alabama’s Ty Simpson, and not Mendoza.
Orlovsky on Simpson
“I think Ty Simpson is QB1,” Orlovsky opined on ESPN’s Get Up program. “I think Ty Simpson is the best quarterback in this class.”
Orlovsky further explained his against-the-grain take,
“He’s phenomenal down in the red zone. When you watch him, when I watch him, I see so much of Brock Purdy. The layered throws, the intermediate game, that ball that’s 15, 20 yards down the field, it’s consistently in the right place.”
Orlovsky also noted that Simpson played in a pro-friendly system at Alabama that prepared him for handling the pressures of the jump to the NFL.
The reality
Credit Orlovsky for going out on a limb in supporting Simpson over Mendoza. It’s not a take that’s likely to be shared by many in the NFL, the media, or the general populace. There’s a stronger debate about the status of Simpson as the presumptive No. 2 quarterback behind Mendoza than there is about Simpson being ahead of his Indiana counterpart.
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