Alabama starting quarterback Ty Simpson will draw Mac Jones comparisons, but Jake Coker makes for a better comp.
Ty Simpson will be a bridge quarterback for Alabama, with Keelon Russell waiting on the other side.
Coach Kalen DeBoer improved Alabama’s supporting cast to support Ty Simpson.
Officially, Alabama settled its quarterback competition on Monday, tapping Ty Simpson as its starter. Unofficially, this conclusion seemed inevitable for months.
Simpson has thrown only 50 passes during a career that includes three seasons as a backup, but that’s 47 more pass attempts than any other quarterback on Alabama’s roster.
When Alabama did not add a transfer quarterback in the winter free agency period, it signaled Simpson would make his first career start in the opener against Florida State.
Optimists will say Simpson could become the next Mac Jones, a backup turned star who threw for 4,500 yards in 2020. Sure, it’s possible, and maybe I’ll be selected as the next James Bond.
By the time Jones became Alabama’s full-time starter, he’d already proven himself after filling in as starter for an injured Tua Tagovailoa the previous season and delivering four standout performances.
Simpson has neither Jones’ experience nor his inimitable supporting cast that included DeVonta Smith, Najee Harris and John Metchie III to warrant 2020 comparisons.
Smarter comparisons would include Blake Sims and Jake Coker, who were longtime backups before starting for Alabama in their final seasons. Coker won a national championship as a steadyhanded guide for the 2015 Crimson Tide. He enjoyed the luxury of handing the ball to Derrick Henry 25-plus times per game.
Unfortunately for Simpson, I don’t see a future Heisman Trophy winner in his backfield, and Alabama’s defense has not, for several years, played to the level it did in 2015.
Still, if Simpson performs to the level Sims and Coker did as starters, that should allow Alabama to find a soft landing after experiencing turbulence, complete with a loss to Vanderbilt, in DeBoer’s debut.
Alabama quarterbacks have experienced a high floor of performance for the better part of two decades, so we must look elsewhere to produce a recent worst-case comparison for Simpson.
Consider the case of Brock Vandagriff. Like Simpson, Vandagriff signed with an elite program as a five-star prospect. Vandagriff chose Georgia, and he failed to win competitions against JT Daniels and Stetson Bennett IV and later against Carson Beck. After three seasons as a seldom-used Georgia backup, Vandagriff finished his career last season starting for Kentucky, where he struggled.
I view Simpson as neither Jones nor Vandagriff. He’s something else. He’s a bridge away from the Nick Saban era, a bridge that eventually will connect to Keelon Russell, a promising five-star freshman who became DeBoer’s first quarterback signee at Alabama.
Can Ty Simpson be for Alabama what Jake Coker was?
There’s optimism, there’s pessimism, and there’s realism. Simpson being a bridge seems most realistic. Bridge quarterbacks can become success stories. Again, I think of Coker, an effective bridge that took Alabama to the Jalen Hurts era.
Optimists also would say Simpson fits DeBoer’s system better than Jalen Milroe. Perhaps true, but DeBoer nonetheless chose Milroe as his starter last season, and Milroe’s speed became a fallback plan for the offense when all else failed. Simpson moves well, but he doesn’t sprint with Milroe’s track-star pace. So, he’ll need to be more efficient than Milroe.
DeBoer, in the spring, said he desired a “playmaker,” not “a game-manager” to emerge from the quarterback competition, and, on that note, offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb describes Simpson as “an incredible playmaker.” In truth, Alabama needs a healthy blend of playmaking and efficiency. Milroe was a playmaker, and he performed at a Heisman level in Alabama’s takedown of Georgia, but consistency eluded him in his lone season playing for DeBoer, and turnovers became an issue. He didn’t receive enough support, either.
Simpson should expect more help after the maturation of some young receivers and the arrival of Isaiah Horton, a transfer from Miami. Milroe could’ve used someone like Horton to help complement Ryan Williams and Germie Bernard.
“We really did a great job hitting on Isaiah Horton, who physically has a presence, but he’s really smooth,” DeBoer told me in April.
What is Ty Simpson’s ceiling? That’s left to answer
If Simpson is an Alabama-caliber starting quarterback, then why didn’t he start earlier in this career? That’s the question I ask myself. Bryce Young initially blocked his path. No shame in that, but when Simpson later failed to beat out Milroe, I found it a bit unusual that he didn’t transfer and start elsewhere.
Simpson would tell you he stayed put because he belongs at Alabama.
“I had no doubt where I wanted to be,” even after Saban’s retirement, Simpson told the Tuscaloosa News in January.
I won’t fault him for loyalty, and no one questions Arch Manning’s ability just because he waited his turn behind Quinn Ewers. But, we saw more of Manning last season than we’ve seen of Simpson throughout his entire career.
Simpson’s ceiling remains a mystery, and how high you believe it extends depends on whether you identify as an optimist, a pessimist, or a realist.
Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network’s national college football columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer.