ESPN analyst says Ty Simpson’s early season tape is ‘more impressive’ than Fernando Mendoza’s

ESPN analyst Dan Orlovsky is reviewing tape on the quarterbacks in the 2026 NFL Draft class, and he believes that Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson’s tape through the first eight games of the 2025 season is more impressive than Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Fernando Mendoza’s tape.

On First Take, Orlovsky talked about why he posted on X about Mendoza’s tape through the first few games of Indiana’s season being underwhelming to him. Orlovsky said that through eight games, Mendoza did not make a lot of big throws, was given a ton of clean pockets, had a ton of RPOs and back-shoulder fades, and he even went into Mendoza’s footwork, saying he gets spooked with his feet if the first read is not there.

Then, he doubled down even more on his original tweet by bringing Simpson into the conversation.  

“Ty Simpson’s tape from Alabama, through the first eight games of the season, is significantly more impressive than Fernando Mendoza’s,” Orlovsky said. 

Orlovsky shared that he is “not there” yet on Mendoza being the No. 1 overall pick in the draft this year, but he also said he hasn’t watched the last few games of the season that Mendoza and Simpson played in.

Right now, Orlovsky is one of the few analysts that feel this way about the Heisman Trophy winner, but he may be one of the only people that have that high of an opinion about Simpson’s performances through eight games. Like Orlovsky reiterated multiple times, there are a couple of games left in his tape review on these quarterbacks, but Mendoza and Simpson went in different directions as the season progressed.

There is no good way to judge how Simpson would have played if he was in perfect health, but like many Alabama coaches have stated in the weekly press conferences during the season, the players are responsible for what they put on tape. 

Simpson was indeed in the Heisman Trophy conversation because of how he performed in those conference games before hitting the team’s second bye week of the season, but he looked drastically different coming out of the bye and had a relatively bad showing against Eastern Illinois of all teams. Simpson finished the season with 3,567 yards, 28 touchdowns and five picks.

Everyone knows how Mendoza’s season ended. The Indiana quarterback brought home a lot of hardware, including the 2025-26 CFP National Championship Trophy. Mendoza concluded the 2025-26 season with 3,535 passing yards, 41 touchdowns and six picks.

Mendoza will not throw at the combine, but Simpson will. The quarterbacks will go through their drills on Saturday, and it’ll be intriguing to see how healthy Simpson is and how he performs in front of NFL scouts.