The central claim in Dan Orlovsky\u2019s case for Ty Simpson over Fernando Mendoza has always been that it isn\u2019t just him. That multiple NFL teams share his view that the Alabama quarterback is the better prospect. That he isn\u2019t simply an outlier.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, Daniel Jeremiah said that it hasn\u2019t been his experience.<\/p>\n
NFL Network\u2019s lead draft analyst joined Nick Kostos on You Better You Bet on Westwood One Sports and was asked whether he\u2019d heard similar sentiment from around the league after Orlovsky claimed on ESPN that multiple teams ranked Simpson ahead of the Indiana quarterback.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, you can talk to different people, but I have not talked to anyone that has that,\u201d Jeremiah said. \u201cThat\u2019s not saying that he\u2019s saying anything untrue, he\u2019s just talking to different folks, apparently, than the folks that I\u2019ve been talking to. And that goes from the Raiders, and a bunch of other teams too, and it wasn\u2019t particularly close.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can talk to different people, but I haven\u2019t talked to anyone that has that.\u201d<\/p>\n
NFL Network\u2019s Daniel Jeremiah (@MoveTheSticks<\/a>) chimes in on @danorlovsky7<\/a>\u2018s comments that he and teams he has spoken to have Ty Simpson ranked over Fernando Mendoza. pic.twitter.com\/Cxz1Aavxhi<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 You Better You Bet (@YouBetterYouBet) March 25, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n Jeremiah and Orlovsky had already been through this privately. The two exchanged texts about the Simpson-Mendoza debate roughly a week before Orlovsky hard-launched it on ESPN, and Jeremiah said he came away from those conversations with a clear read on where his friend stood.<\/p>\n \u201cDan\u2019s a good friend of mine, and long before he went on TV and talked about this opinion, we had shared a lot of text messages back and forth,\u201d Jeremiah said. \u201cThe last thing he said was, \u2018I finished up all the tape.\u2019 He felt the way he felt, my advice to him was, \u2018Hey, if you\u2019ve done all the work, then you can be confident in your opinion, and that\u2019s what your job is to give your opinion.’\u201d<\/p>\n Orlovsky has taken hits from multiple directions over the past few days. Mel Kiper Jr. pushed back on the claim<\/a> that teams shared his view. On Tuesday, he appeared on The Pat McAfee Show and tried to hold his ground,<\/a> but nobody on the show let him. McAfee pressed him on the CAA connection and refused to let slide his suggestion that Mendoza hadn\u2019t played in big games \u2014 this from a quarterback who led Indiana to the national championship with wins over Oregon, Ohio State, Simpson\u2019s Alabama, and Miami. After the appearance, Orlovsky posted a photo of a laundromat sign about kindness<\/a> on social media. McAfee said the next day that he loved Orlovsky but hated how he picks fights and plays victim afterward, and mentioned that Orlovsky had declined his FaceTime call the previous nigh<\/a>t for the first time in their relationship.<\/p>\n \u201cThe whole trial balloon of it was an agency favor and all that kind of stuff, well, I\u2019m represented by the same agency, and Ty Simpson is my 38th player and Fernando Mendoza is my number one overall player,\u201d Jeremiah said. \u201cThat\u2019s not really how this whole thing works. That was kind of silly to me.\u201d<\/p>\n How this whole thing works has been under the microscope all week, as Orlovsky faces questions about whether he\u2019s falling into the hot-take abyss<\/a> and whether his credibility as an evaluator is starting to fray<\/a> at the edges. Jeremiah didn\u2019t question his credibility. But he did say that not one NFL team he\u2019s spoken to \u2014 including the Raiders \u2014 sees it the way Orlovsky does.<\/p>\n \t