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The Cleveland Browns have booked yet another ticket on the quarterback carousel this offseason.
While general manager Andrew Berry is busy working the annual NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis, where the quarterbacks will go through their drills on Saturday, he is pondering the best course of action in the coming months:
- Stick with the status quo for the 2026 season, which includes a pair of non-starting caliber players in Shedeur Sanders and Dillon Gabriel, and a broken Deshaun Watson.
- Pick through the bargain binin free agency for the likes of Kirk Cousins, Marcus Mariota, Russell Wilson, or Kenny Pickett.
- Risk being the sucker at the table that pays Malik Willis around $30 million in guaranteed money.
- Take another shot in the 2026 NFL Draft, a place where the Browns have selected 14 quarterbacks since 1999.
If Berry decides the draft is the way to go, and he could still decide that even if he selects one of the other options, he will have to tread carefully, given that the draft is heavy on one player, Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza, but light on the rest of the class.
But one name that the Browns will likely continue to be linked to is Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson, who, while having spent a considerable amount of time in college, four years, only made 15 starts, all coming in 2025.
To be fair, Simpson made the most of those starts by throwing for 3,567 yards, completing 64.5 percent of his passes, and tossing 28 touchdowns against just five interceptions. But there continues to be considerable evidence that taking a quarterback with so little experience can leave a team with regret.
While he may not have a lot of experience, the experience he does have may carry more weight, as Simpson explained during his media session on Friday at the Scouting Combine:
“I’m ready. I’m a franchise quarterback. Alabama prepares you most for the NFL. With the infrastructure that they have and the guidance from Coach (Nick) Saban, Coach (Kalen) DeBoer, Coach (Ryan) Grubb, all the coordinators that I had before, I ran an NFL-type system. It definitely prepared me for saying those long play calls, saying those checks, and making sure that I get us in the right protection.
“And also, everybody talks about my starts, but I played in other games besides that. I’ve played against really good NFL players. I think about my freshman year, learning from the No. 1 overall pick and Heisman Trophy winner (Bryce Young). Going on defense, going on scout team, I got Will Anderson Jr., Dallas Turner, Henry To’oTo’o, I got Kool-Aid (McKinstry) on one side, I got Terrion (Arnold) on the other side. There are a number of first- and second-round draft picks that I went against and who I was in the locker room with. The Alabama locker room is as close to a locker room in the NFL as you can get.”
Simpson’s “he gets us factor” may not be as high as some other quarterbacks, given that he did not grow up in Ohio, play football in Ohio, or drive through the state of Ohio at some point in his life. (That last part has not been verified at this time.) But he may balance that out because of his family’s relationship with Cleveland head coach Todd Monken. (Throwing in that the Browns “made a great hire” in Monken doesn’t hurt, either.)
During his media time earlier this week at the Scouting Combine, Monken shared his thoughts on Simpson and how familiarity is an important part of evaluating a prospect:
“I like Ty. I liked Ty when he was coming out [of high school]. When I first got to Georgia, they hadn’t offered him. But I went up there and talked to his dad — in fact, his dad, Jason, is a Southern Miss alum, and I was head coach at Southern Miss. I got to know them really well.
“First off, anybody that’s coming out in the draft, quarterback or any position, you’ve got to do a great job of vetting people that have been around them for an extended period of time. Because 20 minutes or an interview doesn’t do it justice. I mean, you’ve got to make sure that the people that they’ve been around are able to say the words that you’re looking for in terms of how they carry themselves, how they are on a day-to-day basis, how they are around their teammates, how they are they third downs, two-minute, critical situations. All of that comes into play.”
The Browns are not going to draft Simpson simply because Monken knows the family, of course, and there is still the very real concern about Simpson’s lack of playing time in college.
But if Monken believes there is enough to work with in Simpson, and the Browns do not feel compelled to play him right away this fall, then the Browns may look to get into position to call his name come draft weekend.