Cardinals Quietly Addressed Ty Simpson Buzz Ahead of NFL Draft

The Arizona Cardinals and Ty Simpson have arguably been the most connected pairing as the 2026 NFL Draft rolls around next Thursday.

The Cardinals still haven't found their long-term solution at quarterback after waving goodbye to Kyler Murray earlier in the offseason while Simpson is projected as the next best quarterback option in the draft after Fernando Mendoza (very assumably) goes first overall.

Simpson met with the Cardinals at the combine and paid a Top 30 visit to Arizona earlier in the week. The team's reported interest in the Alabama quarterback stems back to the late stages of their 2025 regular season, before Jonathan Gannon was fired and Murray was still on the roster.

Months later, and days from the draft, the Cardinals admitted they've done homework on draft quarterbacks — to no surprise.

But what are they looking for? And how does Simpson fit that mold?

"I think we have different characteristics as it goes for every position. I think big ones for me [are] accuracy and decision-making, those are always at the forefront," Cardinals general manager Monti Ossenfort said when evaluating college quarterback play.

"And so every year there's different flavors of quarterbacks. Different sizes, different styles. And so it looks different. The college game looks different than the NFL game does. And so it's up to us to really look at those guys and project how they're going to translate to our league. Every year is different, and we certainly did our share of evaluation on the quarterbacks in this year's draft."

In Dane Brugler's draft evaluation of Simpson for The Athletic, accuracy, processing and poise were all strengths listed.

Simpson is indeed a different flavor of quarterback for two different reasons: His size and starting experience.

Simpson came in at just under 6-2 and 211 lbs, which is a smaller frame for an NFL quarterback. While Simpson clearly wouldn't be the smallest passer in the league upon arrival, he still falls under the prototypical/coveted frame of what franchises hope for at the position.

Simpson only started 15 games at Alabama, all coming last season. That one year sample size is perhaps the most polarizing aspect of Simpson as a prospect, which creates more curiosity and unknown in terms of evaluation for teams.

If Simpson indeed is a first-round pick like many project, that's a big swing at the plate for Ossenfort at football's most important position.

"I think with that, you got to look at at the reasons for that. There's advantages to time on task. There is, there really is. And so I think you got to look at why? Why is there not as big of a body of work? And then ultimately, you're going to evaluate the tape that you have to evaluate," Ossenfort said when asked about limited college starting experience.

"And some guys are going to have more, some guys tape looks better than others, you know. So I think that's just another piece of that evaluation process. I think you just got to go with what you have. And with some guys there's less and some guys there's more, and just figuring out why exactly that is."