Buffalo Bills fans may have no choice but to get very familiar with the name Ty Simpson. To be fair, his name has become unavoidable a month away from the NFL Draft after ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky dubbed him the best quarterback in the class and The Ringer’s Todd McShay backed him up on the take.
Of course, the reason Bills fans should be keeping an eye on the Alabama quarterback is that one of his most likely destinations is the rival New York Jets in the AFC East. The more chatter that revolves around Simpson, the more pressure the Jets will face in making sure they leave Pittsburgh with him on their roster.
That being said, Bills Mafia can already see the storyboard for the Jets' next struggle under center taking shape.
Bills Mafia watches Jets stumble into familiar rookie quarterback trap
With Simpson’s name circulating so heavily with such high praise, it almost seems a certainty that he’ll be a first-round pick. In that respect, Bleacher Report’s Mo Moten looked at the five most likely teams to select Simpson in the first round that would be a solid fit for the former five-star prospect. Naturally, Moten listed the Jets, and painted the picture of his first season that Bills fans see coming from a mile away.
“Although [Geno] Smith would likely start this year, he's [35] and will try to rebound from his worst statistical season as a starter since his first stint with the Jets. If the 13-year veteran continues in a downward spiral, Simpson could see the field by the end of the 2026 campaign in New York,” Moten wrote on Thursday.
The Jets have played this game before, many times in fact. They bring in a veteran quarterback to help their young quarterback out, but put that quarterback on the field much too early. It happened to Zach Wilson and Sam Darnold, and it could well happen again with Simpson.
The trade to bring Smith back to Gang Green screamed desperation loud enough for the struggling franchise. As Moten pointed out, Smith isn’t getting any younger, and his lone season with the Las Vegas Raiders wiped away the goodwill he’d built up in three seasons as Seattle’s starter. The Jets are somehow in an even worse position than the Raiders were in 2025, and whoever is going to be their extended starter in 2026 is going to have an extremely difficult time finding success.
If the Jets do draft Simpson, it’s only a matter of time before Jets fans have their fill of round 2 with Smith and start calling for the rookie to take over. And when the Jets make that switch, Simpson will be put into the same hole that Wilson and Darnold were buried in at MetLife Stadium. In fact, that hole is only deeper after the team gutted the top of its roster at the trade deadline. At least Wilson and Darnold had semi-competent defenses to rely on. Smith, and hypothetically Simpson, won’t have that in 2026.
For Simpson’s sake, he should hope that one of the four other teams Moten listed, which included the likes of other quarterback-graveyard franchises like the Arizona Cardinals and Cleveland Browns, takes a shot on him before the Jets get too many chances with their four top-50 selections. Because if he lands in New York, Bills fans already know the fate that awaits him.