{"id":769954,"date":"2026-02-22T23:26:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T23:26:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/769954\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T23:26:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T23:26:18","slug":"insider-believes-qb-ty-simpson-is-out-of-steelers-reach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/769954\/","title":{"rendered":"Insider Believes QB Ty Simpson is Out of Steelers Reach"},"content":{"rendered":"

2026 NFL Draft<\/a>\u2022Steelers News<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"NCAACredit: Brett Davis-Imagn Images\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The quarterback-needy Pittsburgh Steelers are already out of reach of presumptive No. 1 overall pick Fernando Mendoza<\/a> of Indiana. However, NFL Network insider Tom Pelissero believes he isn\u2019t the only quarterback the Steelers will have little to no shot of landing at their current standing.<\/p>\n

Pelissero thinks Pittsburgh is also currently too far down the 2026 NFL Draft board to land Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson<\/a> at No. 21 overall.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still believe, not just that he goes in the first, I believe Ty Simpson most likely goes in the top half of the first round,\u201d Pelissero said on The Rich Eisen Show<\/a>. \u201cAnd remember, with four teams holding multiple first-round picks, there are times that teams look at that and go, \u2018We\u2019ve kind of got an extra one to play with here. We can get an instant impact from one and maybe a developmental starter from another.’\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The Steelers are not among the teams with two first-round selections, but they do have plenty of draft capital to execute a trade-up if they so desire with 12 total picks.<\/p>\n

That seemed to be Pittsburgh\u2019s original plan before several of this year\u2019s top quarterback prospects decided to return to their respective schools.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, if the Steelers view Simpson as a potential franchise quarterback, it may just take a trade-up to land him.<\/p>\n

Simpson threw for 3,567 yards, 28 touchdowns and just five interceptions while leading Alabama to the College Football Playoffs. However, the start to his 2025 season was opposite that of the second half.<\/p>\n

\"PittsburghTy Simpson, Alabama Athletics<\/p>\n

Pelissero thinks he may know what caused Simpson\u2019s decline in production, though.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had some type of gastritis issue,\u201d Pelissero continued. \u201cHe lost a bunch of weight. He was maybe weighing [190 pounds] by the end of the season.\u201d<\/p>\n

Simpson also suffered a cracked rib in Alabama\u2019s semifinal loss to Indiana on Jan. 1, so his health is currently in question. <\/p>\n

Luckily for Pittsburgh, Simpson is planning to throw at the\u00a02026 NFL Combine<\/a>, which will not only give the team a better look at him but the 31 other NFL franchises as well.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMentioned In This Article: 2026 NFL Draft<\/a> Alabama<\/a> Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a> Steelers<\/a> Tom Pelissero<\/a> Ty Simpson<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"2026 NFL Draft\u2022Steelers News Credit: Brett Davis-Imagn Images The quarterback-needy Pittsburgh Steelers are already out of reach of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":756315,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[4955,52,7,6,520,57,2360,426,3257,20708],"class_list":{"0":"post-769954","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-steelers","8":"tag-2026-nfl-draft","9":"tag-alabama","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-pittsburgh","13":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","14":"tag-pittsburghsteelers","15":"tag-steelers","16":"tag-tom-pelissero","17":"tag-ty-simpson"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116116874441121299","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=769954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769954\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/756315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=769954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=769954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=769954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}