Dr. JIMMY Rowland, DPT,PT, CSCS

That is not a complaint. It is a gap. Gaps get filled eventually. The teams that fill it first get a decade-long edge at the most important position in football.

PFF ranked processing and decision-making as the number one QB evaluation category for 2026. Every scouting report on this class uses the word "processor" without measuring it. Teams will spend $50M on Mendoza's contract. None of them measured his cognitive processing speed before signing.

After a high ankle sprain, the kinetic chain compensates. Every throw. Hip rotation gets restricted. The trunk overworks. The arm picks up the slack. That's not just how it feels. That's how injury recurrence happens. The throw looking good at 100 days doesn't tell you the chain is clean. It tells you he's tough enough to push through it. Two different things. Watch his plant foot. Watch his hip. That's where the story is.

Everyone is celebrating Mahomes throwing 100 days post knee surgery. I'm watching something different.

Lost in the CAA noise: nobody's asking what cognitive evaluation actually says about either QB. Kiper's instinct about Simpson may be right for the wrong reasons. Eye tracking, pre-snap scan patterns, post-snap decision speed. THAT'S the evaluation framework the combine still ignores.

"Yeah, that's not shared by anybody I've spoken to." —@MelKiperESPN responded to @RealTannenbaum concerning Ty Simpson in the 2026 NFL Draft ⬇️

@MySportsUpdate @PatMcAfeeShow What GMs actually saw: pre-snap scan, audible decisiveness, post-snap lock. That's not film study instinct. That's trained pattern recognition. Simpson scores elite on every clinical processing indicator I look for in QBs. The brain ages slower than the highlight reel.

Dan Orlovsky says he texted 12–15 GMs/decision-makers that Alabama QB Ty Simpson is the best QB in the draft, and only 2 disagreed. (🎥 @PatMcAfeeShow)

The starts debate misses the deeper question. It's not how many starts. It's what the brain learned from each rep. Simpson had elite pre-snap processing in limited starts. Mendoza had more volume but regressed when pressure changed. Volume without cognitive adaptation doesn't compound.

"I don't want a quarterback who had 16 starts! History's on my side – I've gotta have at least 35 starts." – DP on Dan Orlovsky saying Ty Simpson is QB1 in this year's NFL Draft.

@MrDiamondlocks @NFL_DovKleiman Controlled chaos. MMA training puts the nervous system under unpredictable threat, which trains the brain to make fast, calm decisions in novel situations. That's exactly what QBs face post-snap. Composure under pressure is a trainable neurological state.

@NFL_DovKleiman I don’t understand how that helps his game at all.

Scary: Giants star QB Jaxson Dart is working out with MMA superstar Khamzat Chimaev this offseason to improve his hand-eye coordination. Jackson will be a PROBLEM next season 😈

@NFL_DovKleiman The hand-eye piece is real. But what most people miss: combat sports train composure under threat. That changes brain state during motor execution. As a sports PT who works with QBs, the best throws happen when the nervous system is calm but alert. You can train that threshold.

@QuincyAvery 100% agree with you!

I think the real issue is that a lot folks think Mendoza is better than the tape says he is. I don't think the gap is that big at all and can easily see how someone could have the order Simpson QB1. But I don't think there is a top 15 pick at the QB position this year.

Scouts called him a "quick processor." His 2025 tape backs that. But an injury-riddled season on top of limited prior starts means his body has not been stress-tested the way his brain has been. In sports medicine we call that a mismatch. His cognitive hardware is ahead of his tissue tolerance. That gap has a name. And it is coachable.

Ty Simpson's Alabama Pro Day is today. Every scout is watching his arm. Fair. But the more interesting question is what his body has been through to get here.

Alabama pro day today. Everyone will evaluate his arm. The question nobody is asking: after an injury-disrupted 2025, what happened to his cognitive processing speed? Tissue heals fast. Neural recalibration under defensive pressure takes longer. That gap doesn't show up throwing in shorts.

The Arizona Cardinals and the New York Jets remain neck and neck for the odds to draft Ty Simpson. WATCH: youtube.com/live/octFxv5cX…

As a sports PT, Lorenzen fascinates me clinically. Good throwing mechanics aren't about looking athletic. They're about kinetic chain efficiency. Ground force into the hip, hip into the trunk, trunk into the shoulder, shoulder into the arm. He had the sequence right. The body weight almost didn't matter.

Jared Lorenzen defied science. RIP

You just described processing speed without using the clinical term. "Slowing the game down" = the brain completing its pattern match before the window closes. It's not instinct. It's not experience alone. It's a trainable cognitive skill. The research supports this now. Does Caleb prove it's fixable?

I don't think his mechanics are the reason for his lack of success. He isn't seeing his receivers so the ball isn't coming out on time. By the time he sees them, the window is shrinking so he has to gun it in their with everything he's got. Those balls are tough to catch & even tougher to throw with consistent accuracy. Until he is able to slow the game down in his mind, he won't succeed. This "slowing the game down" is the most important attribute of a successful QB1 in the NFL.

Minnesota Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy is putting in serious offseason work in California, training with renowned QB coach John Beck, according to a report from The Athletic. The young Vikings signal-caller has been focusing heavily on refining his mechanics, improving consistency, and developing better touch on his throws. Key areas that could define his growth heading into the upcoming NFL season. This kind of specialized training is a strong sign that McCarthy is fully committed to elevating his game and taking the next step as a starting quarterback in the NFL. With the Vikings closely monitoring his development, there’s growing optimism that he could emerge as a breakout player and solidify his role as the future of the franchise. As expectations rise in Minnesota, all eyes will be on J.J. McCarthy to see if this offseason work translates into real production on the field. If his improvements carry over, the Vikings may have found their long-term answer at quarterback. #Vikings #JJMcCarthy #NFL #MinnesotaVikings #Skol

Coach Lange is exactly right. The arm angle problem is usually a hip problem. When the lower body can't rotate fully, the arm compensates to create velocity. Different release angles are often the symptom. Mobility restriction in the hips is usually the cause. Fix the foundation first.

Jake Lange - Offensive Assistant, QB’s, University of West Florida The quarterback cannot be the reason you lose a side of the field. Coach Lange on training arm angles and creativity. All inside lfgclinic.com.

The physical training is the visible part. What's harder to see: Dart is also rebuilding neural pathways. Every new mechanic requires rewriting motor programs that fired thousands of times the wrong way. That's not a technique fix. That's a brain rewiring. Takes longer than people expect.

TRENDING: New York #Giants rookie star quarterback Jaxson Dart and Sam Hartman have been training together this off-season. 👀 Dart is in the best shape of his life and is expected to have a breakout All-Pro season this year.

PFF ranked processing and decision-making as the number one QB evaluation category in 2026. Their words. Still no test for it at any pro day. We built one. 35-question cognitive battery. Coverage recognition. Post-snap reads. Pattern recognition under time pressure. The cognitive 40 time.

Every pro day this spring. Same measurements. 40 time. Vertical. Bench. Nobody measured processing speed. Not reaction time. Not pattern recognition under pressure. Not decision-making in compressed time windows. Yet every scouting report on the 2026 QB class uses the word processor. Simpson: quick processor. Mendoza: sees it fast. All qualitative. All unmeasured.

The pre-snap scan is a visual skill. The post-snap lock is a visual skill. Neither one is talent. Both are trainable. The evidence base is now 40 years deep. What are we waiting for to actually train it? Full review (19 studies): pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12…

Elite athletes use fewer fixations. Longer duration. More stable gaze under pressure. Novices scan frantically. Experts LOCK IN. The mechanism is called quiet eye. The final fixation before the throw. In every sport studied, elite performers hold it longer and more precisely. QBs are no different.

The way we evaluate QB vision is broken. Everyone talks about "reading the field." Nobody asks what the eyes are actually doing. 19 eye-tracking studies just answered that question. The results challenge everything coaches think they know about QB development.