QB Simpson this year OR wait for next year's class?

[az jam]

I would not use the #3 pick on Simpson but draft him later. If the Cards don't draft Simpson I would still like to see them draft a qb perhaps Nussmeier, Beck or Allar in the 3rd or 4th round. One of these could develop into a decent qb. Packer Hall of Fame GM Ron Wolf believed in drafting a qb every year regardless of the current roster. It became the cornerstone of the Packer winning philosophy.

 

[Krangodnzr]

Where does Ty Simpson fall in this grouping of QB who will likely be available this time next year? Should Cards wait and hope for one of these guys over making the draft effort for Simpson?

Top Returning Quarterbacks Going into the 2026 College Season:

Who Are The Top 10 Returning College Football QBs of 2026

Ten battle-tested quarterbacks return to college football for 2026, bringing experience and unfinished business to programs

www.totalprosports.com

2026 College Football QB Rankings: Ranking the Top 10 Quarterbacks

Who is the best signal-caller in the country? From Heisman favorites to NFL Draft prospects, we rank the top 10 college football quarterbacks for the 2026 season.

www.sportsgrid.com

Top returning quarterbacks for 2026 CFB season

Every college football season begins with a familiar question: which quarterbacks will shape the national conversation? For the 2026 campaign, that question carries even more intrigue as a new wave of talented signal-callers prepares to lead some of the sport’s biggest programs. In a recent...

www.thebiglead.com

Julian Sayin – Ohio State Buckeyes
Sayin is the only returning 2025 Heisman finalist, completing 77% of his passes with a 74.2% accurate throw rate, setting a PFF College single-season record. He led all FBS quarterbacks with a 92.9 PFF grade and is expected to be a top NFL draft prospect in 2027.

Dante Moore – Oregon Ducks
Moore returns after a 32-touchdown season and a 90.2 PFF passing grade. Known for his arm strength and playmaking ability, he led the nation in deep-throw accuracy and guided Oregon to the College Football Playoff semifinals.

Arch Manning – Texas Longhorns
Manning combines dual-threat ability with high football IQ. In 2025, he threw for 3,163 yards and 26 touchdowns while adding 399 rushing yards and 10 rushing TDs. He posted an 87.3 PFF grade and is a key leader for Texas.

Trinidad Chambliss – Ole Miss Rebels
Chambliss, granted a sixth year, threw for 3,934 yards and added 585 rushing yards. He excelled under pressure with a 76.1 PFF grade and is a dynamic dual-threat quarterback.

CJ Carr – Notre Dame Fighting Irish
Carr completed 66.6% of his passes for 2,741 yards and 24 touchdowns. He is a redshirt sophomore with strong field vision and is expected to lead Notre Dame’s offense with increased responsibility.

Sam Leavitt – LSU Tigers
Leavitt, transferring from Arizona State, posted 15 touchdowns in a limited 2025 season. He has a dual-threat skill set and an 87.8 PFF grade over the last two seasons, making him a potential Heisman contender.

Jayden Maiava – USC Trojans
Maiava threw for 3,711 yards and 24 touchdowns in 2025. He is known for his aggressive vertical passing style and has posted back-to-back 80+ PFF grades.

Brendan Sorsby – Texas Tech Red Raiders
Sorsby threw for 2,800 yards and 27 touchdowns with 580 rushing yards. He excels under pressure, leading the nation with a 78.4 PFF grade in high-pressure situations.

Darian Mensah – Miami Hurricanes
Mensah threw for 3,973 yards and 34 touchdowns in 2025. He is a strong arm quarterback with mobility, poised to elevate Miami’s offense in 2026.

Josh Hoover – Indiana Hoosiers
Hoover transferred from TCU and threw for 3,472 yards and 29 touchdowns in 2025. He is known for rhythm, timing, and accuracy, and will lead the reigning national champions.

I've been doing some research trying to figure out----Simpson now---Or one of the above with our predicted 4.5 wins???

No LaNorris Sellers? He had a down 2025 for sure, but he's got incredible traits.

 

[GimmedaBall]

No LaNorris Sellers? He had a down 2025 for sure, but he's got incredible traits.

I limited the QB class for the 2027 NFL draft to those who were in the Top 10 among the different sources. Here’s LaNorris Sellers 2025 stat line: 61.0 QBR, 2,437 passing yards, 13 TDs, eight INTs, 60.8% completion rate, 13.7 yards per completion; 610 non-sack rushing yards, five TD

Here’s a really deep dive into the next QB class by ESPN writer Bill Connelly. He’s got Sellers slotted at #25 among 68 QB. (I’m hard pressed to decide among the Top 10, let alone 68). Also, I didn’t see Uncle Rico on the list—he’s gone into a successful Tupperware business and is no longer considered by draftniks. Too bad. That boy could throw a ball over the White Mountains and hit a moving target with a piece of well-done steak.

Pre-spring QB rankings for all 68 Power 4 college football teams

Spring football is about to begin. CJ Carr, Arch Manning, Julian Sayin? Who's the best QB right now?

www.espn.com

There's a detailed eval of Sellers when it looked as if he would declare for this draft. It is posted on Reddit and will not link on this site. Many wonder about the equjpment between the ears to perform at the NFL level.

 

[Goldfield]

This is a joke, right? I'm all for seizing the day and not waiting for tomorrow, but baseline those guys will all be better prospects because they'll have started, gee, more than fifteen effing games.

Yinz want to crown this Simpson kid, fine. Don't complain to the mods when I put you on blast when he bombs. I don't want to hear "I didn't see that coming!" or "I was so wrong!" or "It's the Cards' fault for not developing him" or "In hindsight it was a mistake!" Taking QBs who start so few games is dumb in foresight. It is a ginormous gamble in foresight.

Have you even watched his film?

 

[MTCardinal]

Good point. Nothing says you can't take a guy at QB two years in a row. For such an important position, sometimes have to shop around more than once. I think BA once said you need to draft a QB every year.

Of course, that is what Cards did with Rosen and then taking KM. LOL.

So where do you see Simpson falling in the list of QBs coming out next year??? Where would you take him based on that evaluation?

xc_hide_links_from_guests_guests_error_hide_media

Some posters here have incredibly strong and entrenched opinions about certain players but I'm not one of them...I watched a few Alabama games last season but other than that I don't devote any of my time to evaluating potential draftees. I'll leave that to the folks that get paid to do it. But I see absolutely nothing wrong with drafting Simpson or another QB the team likes in the first few rounds in this draft, and then taking another QB early in the 2027 draft if it appears as though the 2026 pick, whoever he is, isn't going to be the guy. It doesn't have to be one or the other. Until the Cardinals find their answer at the QB position it doesn't matter how many linemen or edge rushers they draft, they aren't going anywhere in the NFC West without the QB in place.

 

[Solar7]

A month or two ago, I was more willing to take the risk on Simpson, even potentially at #3, and was higher on him. He hasn't done anything wrong, but my mind has changed a bit.

@az jam basically laid it out in the right way, I don't want to move up or be aggressive for Simpson when we could swing at Nussmeier, Allar, or Beck. (I don't like Beck as a person, but that's beside the point.) A lot of those names were tied to the concept of "next year's class is better," and ended up flopping.

I was worried that the Jets or Rams would beat us to Simpson, and now I feel that his stock is settling into a spot where we'll either feel good about him slipping, or accept that we lost.

I'm happy to draft someone as a flyer, while leaving us open to drafting a higher premium QB next year.

 

[GimmedaBall]

Some posters here have incredibly strong and entrenched opinions about certain players but I'm not one of them...I watched a few Alabama games last season but other than that I don't devote any of my time to evaluating potential draftees. I'll leave that to the folks that get paid to do it. But I see absolutely nothing wrong with drafting Simpson or another QB the team likes in the first few rounds in this draft, and then taking another QB early in the 2027 draft if it appears as though the 2026 pick, whoever he is, isn't going to be the guy. It doesn't have to be one or the other. Until the Cardinals find their answer at the QB position it doesn't matter how many linemen or edge rushers they draft, they aren't going anywhere in the NFC West without the QB in place.

When it comes to QBs, the conversations start out sounding like Dueling Egos but quickly sound like Dueling Banjos played by a heavy metal band. A lot of investment goes into selecting the right guy at QB because it is the single most important player on the team when it comes to success/failure. You said it yourself on drafting other players---if you don't get some solution at QB, the team is doomed.

Get the QB decision-making wrong at the pro-level and fear for your job and your safety of you and your family in the community. Wrong decisions at QB and entire staffs are fired---some to never get another job at the pro-level.

On fan forums, if you somehow make the right call on a QB you can earn some Thread Cred. Sometimes. I was banned from a different forum because I argued against signing KM to an early extension but insisted that we wait and see what he could do under a 'prove it' year. That went against the grain of too many of the long-term posters who had been waiting for years to get a legit QBOTF. Their fear was that KM would play out his 'tag' years and move on. Sign him early with an extension when he was on his rookie deal and save some money as compared to a later deal. That is true---if the guy at least plays to the contract. Cards signed him early and we are still paying the price of the impulse buy at the QB store. (That's my ego about being 'right' and the others 'wrong.') Another poster was run-off the other forum for the same reason.

I took a beating on this forum when I dared speak up about the declining play of CB Patrick Peterson. At the time, he was one of the very few stars we had. It took a while for the forum to catch up with P2 and now a lot of people will claim they knew it all along. You'll see that adjusted memory a lot when it comes to QBs and fading stars.

I agree with you that we should bring QBs in until we find our guy. But there is just too much at stake on the pro-level to even allow that. Each failed QB experiment is one more guy we had to pass over in the draft to take that QB. There's a lot of ego-value on a fan forum for 'getting it right.' Witness the squabbles that break out when two posters disagree about a QB---who isn't on the team and probably off the radar for us to even sign. Can you imagine the ego battles inside a team's facility---where that draft capital means so much more?

Bruce Arians once said that he wanted to retire from the Cards leaving behind a QBOTF in place. He never got the chance with the egos of SK/MB in his way. BA brought in Patricik Mahomes for a visit---got to believe he saw enough to want to draft him. He understood QB play at least as much as the KC coaching staff. Didn't happen. MB wanted to present his elderly father BB with a SB when it was played here in Phoenix and our drafts around that period were to finalize the defensive roster and get us in the SB. BA did get to pick a QB---a 5th round Logan Thomas who turned into a pretty good TE---with a different team.

As a Cards fan, it is painful to see this team not get close to a solution. We got good results almost by sheer luck with KW and the trade for Carson Palmer. Recall it took the benching of our high-pick ML for KW to become the guy. Is Ty Simpson the guy---probably not. But what if he is for some other team and we get the burden of memory of having passed on him???

 

[Stout]

Taking QBs in any given draft is a good thing. That's taking a flyer on a QB; the axiom does not extend to the top rounds. Some people are extrapolating that old axiom to mean it would be no big deal to take Simpson high and have him fail. Um, yes, absolutely that would be a big negative. If you take a flyer on a mid to late-round QB and he fails, no big deal.

 

[maroon]

Taking QBs in any given draft is a good thing. That's taking a flyer on a QB; the axiom does not extend to the top rounds. Some people are extrapolating that old axiom to mean it would be no big deal to take Simpson high and have him fail. Um, yes, absolutely that would be a big negative. If you take a flyer on a mid to late-round QB and he fails, no big deal.

I agree with you, I personally like Drew Allar in this class but even then he's a third to 5th round pick imo and interesting enough if he were to fall, you could possibly take both Simpson and Allar, very unlikely as I think Allar is a sleeper in this draft and someone will over pay for him. I think between Simpson and Allar, Allar has the higher ceiling but a lower floor, so if they take Simpson, cause Mike L likes him, I'm ok with it, but there we go again with another regime wait to see how it pans out. i think you kinda have to let your coach have what he really wants even if it's costly.

IF we're going to take Simpson a trade down with Dallas makes sense to get their 12 and 20 if we can, take Simpson with the 20 and no, I wouldn't but again, if it's what they want, go ahead. We should be able to get an OT or an Edge with the 12, then possibly flip it with the 34 and get whatever we did not get with the twelve between OT and Edge. it's not ideal, but given what they seem to want I'm ok with it.

Simpson is not really my prototype QB, I think Allar is the only one in the draft that I'd even consider but i'm a throwback. Having said all that please prove me wrong, make Simpson be the best QB in 10 years, I'd love to be wrong, but only if the Cardinals take him.

 

[GatorAZ]

The way Arch bounced back after early struggles makes you think he’s on the right path. I expect a big season in year 4 but I don’t believe in the generational hype.

Dante Moore could be the #1 pick in 2027 or completely flame out. He’s all over the place as a prospect.

Maiava and Mensah will blow up next year. Both are on the right path and have talent/coaching around them. I have them as a higher ceiling QB’s than Sayin and Chambliss.

Leavitt does nothing for me and seems like a punk.

If Simpson went back to college he’d be a top-5 in 2027 but we’ll never know for sure. As a rookie I don’t see him having the opportunity to make an impression big enough to ignore QB in 2027. A team would just have to be all in on him behind the scenes.

 

[kerouac9]

If Simpson went back to college he’d be a top-5 in 2027 but we’ll never know for sure.

He might also not have had a job

 

[DVontel]

Nussmeier, Allar, or Beck.

I could maybe, maybe be convinced into Nussmeier.

Allar & Beck are awful though.

 

[Phrazbit]

The way Arch bounced back after early struggles makes you think he’s on the right path. I expect a big season in year 4 but I don’t believe in the generational hype.

Dante Moore could be the #1 pick in 2027 or completely flame out. He’s all over the place as a prospect.

Maiava and Mensah will blow up next year. Both are on the right path and have talent/coaching around them. I have them as a higher ceiling QB’s than Sayin and Chambliss.

Leavitt does nothing for me and seems like a punk.

If Simpson went back to college he’d be a top-5 in 2027 but we’ll never know for sure. As a rookie I don’t see him having the opportunity to make an impression big enough to ignore QB in 2027. A team would just have to be all in on him behind the scenes.

I’m not sure if Simpson even starts for Alabama if he stays in college.

 

[GatorAZ]

I’m not sure if Simpson even starts for Alabama if he stays in college.

I didn’t say Bama:
.

xc_hide_links_from_guests_guests_error_hide_media

 

[TRW]

Somehow every time I see this thread title in recent posts my eyes see OJ Simpson...

 

[LoyaltyisaCurse]

Beck in the 5th or 6th rd. Better value and if he sucks, it costs very little. Plus, he’s better than Simp.

 

[Dan H]

Former Packers GM Ron Wolf was a proponent of drafting a QB every year. It’s the most important position on the field, one of them might pan out, and if more than one does, it’s an asset you can flip. It worked out for him, too - he drafted multiple guys who were starters and Pro Bowlers elsewhere along with long-term backups.

 

[vince56]

Former Packers GM Ron Wolf was a proponent of drafting a QB every year. It’s the most important position on the field, one of them might pan out, and if more than one does, it’s an asset you can flip. It worked out for him, too - he drafted multiple guys who were starters and Pro Bowlers elsewhere along with long-term backups.

There’s irony in that coming from the Packers where they’ve had such amazing success with QBs that they’ve only had 3 starters in 30+ years. Rolling from Favre to Rodgers to Love is an amazing run.

 

[Totally_Red]

The plus: he seems to fit the Mcvey-Shanahan offense. The minus: he may not be durable.
I would take him at 34, but trading up only if it is very inexpensive,e.g., a 4th round pick or less.

 

[az jam]

There’s irony in that coming from the Packers where they’ve had such amazing success with QBs that they’ve only had 3 starters in 30+ years. Rolling from Favre to Rodgers to Love is an amazing run.

What is amazing is that Wolf keep drafting these QBs when Farve was the starter and ended up trading many of them for some good draft picks. He also signed Kurt Warner as a free agent.

 

[Stout]

Former Packers GM Ron Wolf was a proponent of drafting a QB every year. It’s the most important position on the field, one of them might pan out, and if more than one does, it’s an asset you can flip. It worked out for him, too - he drafted multiple guys who were starters and Pro Bowlers elsewhere along with long-term backups.

NOT at the top of the draft smh

 

[Dan H]

NOT at the top of the draft smh

Oh, for sure, I don't want Simpson at 3, either.

 

[GimmedaBall]

Oh, for sure, I don't want Simpson at 3, either.

Do you have a QB preference in this draft besides Simpson?
Would you take Mendoza if he were available at our pick?
Would you trade up to #1 for Mendoza?
Hard pass on all the QBs in this draft?
Any preference for a QB in the 2027?

 

[Stout]

Oh, for sure, I don't want Simpson at 3, either.

Or in a trade back, or in the top of the 2nd. I read a lot (not just yours) of references to the old Packer strategy as a reason why it make sense to take Simpson high, which is nonsense (not that I think you were really saying this). It totally misses the point in what the Pack did: Use great scouting and drafting on late round gems to later deal.

 

[602 Native]

Don’t care if they draft Simpson they just better not reach for him.

3rd round or later. Kid will be a backup at best.