The Pomp And Joe Show
Ray Fittipaldo on the NFL Combine, if Ty Simpson and Drew Allar are targets
27 Feb 2026
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
You know what that sound means? It's time for Everybody Loves Raymond. Ray Fittipaldo, brought to us by LGKG, Western Pennsylvania Super Lawyers. They try cases and insurance companies know it. Luxembourg, Garbit, Kelly and George. Ray's driving back from the combine. How are you, Ray?
Well, I'm good, Joe. How are you? We are about halfway into the drive. stopping now around Reynoldsburg, if you know where that is, home of Le'Veon Bell.
I was just going to say the home of Le'Veon Bell, yes.
And Roosevelt Knicks as well. I don't want to leave Rosie out of this.
Yeah, maybe he's signaling first down when they're five yards short against the Saints, right?
Maybe, maybe.
All right, Ray, what was the biggest story you covered there? Omar talking, did something else happen there? What was the biggest thing that happened while you were there?
I don't know if there was any major news, Joe, but I think the news that they still don't know what's going on with Broderick Jones three months after he had neck surgery is at least notable.
He has some time here where he could recover from training camp, but Omar doesn't know the answer to that at this point, so I do think that's something that they're going to have to deal with certainly over the next few months and Whatever they find out, they're going to have to be able to be light on their feet if that's not good news.
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Chapter 2: What were the key stories from the NFL Combine?
I'm not saying he won't be a first-round pick. Some team might really fall in love with him. I would just have a hard time seeing the Steelers make that pick, what, four years after they made that mistake with Kenny Pickett.
How about Aller? Would they look at him as a guy who was more a victim of his circumstances than a victim of himself? And do they see him as an interesting prospect for, I don't know, maybe the third round?
Yeah, I mean, listen, they sat down with him for an interview, so I think that is notable. The interesting thing about Aller is he's that big, strong, prototypical quarterback, has the arm. And whenever you have a guy with traits like that, it's interesting. But then you turn on the tape and he never performed well in big games. He was never a consistent player.
How do you sort of get around that? So I don't think Drew Aller, certainly he's not going to the first round. He might even be a stretch to go in the second round. But listen, I mean, anybody with traits, size you can't teach, arm strength you can't teach, that guy at some point, I think on day two, is going to hear his name called.
Who else in the quarterback ranks do you think they have their eyes on? Or maybe you know somebody else they talk to.
Well, I don't know if they talked to Nussmeier or not, but Nussmeier is another name who's going to be in that second or third round range. He had a lot more hype around this time last year. He didn't have a great year for LSU. Joe, that's about it. There's not a lot of great quarterbacks in this class. I think they're doing their due diligence.
They have to do that because they don't have their long-term answer, but I don't think any of these guys are really, really going to be terrific NFL players. I think a lot of these guys beyond Fernando Mendoza are, you know, projects.
All right. Well, then how are you, Ray Fittipaldo, interpreting all the Will Howard hype that's coming from them? Not us. From them. Right. How are you interpreting this, and how does this actually play out? Because part of me thinks it's just going to simply be Rogers 1, Rudolph 2, and Howard 3 again. I don't know. That seems the most obvious choice if I was betting right now.
What do you make of the Howard hype, and how does it all play out?
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Chapter 3: What is the Steelers' interest in Ty Simpson and Drew Allar?
They haven't won anything in since the early seventies, the Vikings were up there. They had never won a Superbowl. I don't know what any of this means, I guess is what I'm saying. Like, do you really think the lack of facilities is going to hinder from attracting good free agents? Like, I don't, I don't really think that's, that's a big deal.
So I don't want to say any of this stuff is overblown because I think the players have their opinions and I think their opinions are important, but in the grand scheme of things of putting together a winning team, I don't, I'm not so sure how this report card affects everything, if you know what I'm saying.
Exactly. And I said it earlier on the show in terms of competitiveness. And maybe that is all that matters to people. It probably should be. All you need to know is that the Dolphins are first. So, yeah, I agree with you there. However, however, the Steelers love to portray themselves as the mom and pop shop, the family values place where we care more about our players than anybody else.
Man, it sure doesn't look that way. I just think it's a terrible look, even if it doesn't affect wins and losses.
Yeah, you know, I was thinking about this, Joe. You know, maybe it was quaint 25 years ago when Dan Rooney, you know, made the move from Three Rivers to the Southside that they were going to share it with Pitt. But obviously no one else does that. That's not the way you want to run an NFL franchise, sharing a facility with a college team.
So I don't think that's going to continue when they do get their new facility. So I think it's just obvious things like that that maybe ā things become outdated or ideas become outdated. I mean, you know, when you look at the NFL, it is an arms race.
You know, just look at these stadiums that are being built, these stadiums that are getting to host the Super Bowl, SoFi, and, you know, all these places we go to. They're phenomenal facilities. And I think the Steelers, when they do eventually get a new stadium and when they're definitely going to get a new practice facility, I do think they have to pour a lot of resources into that
because they're a flagship NFL franchise. You don't want to be looked upon in the way they're being looked upon with this bad publicity now. Now, it's only one day, two days. People are going to forget about this by the time the weekend's over, but it does seem to come up every single year about this time.
I don't know. I think this one lasts a little longer because of the toilets. I think that gives it lasting power, Ray, to only have five of them left. So funny, man. They should, like I said earlier, they should plop one of the, and pun intended, they should plop one of those Pittsburgh toilets right in the middle of the locker room. Why not? At this rate?
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Chapter 4: How does the Steelers' quarterback situation look for the upcoming season?
Buell Insurance. 724-443-5610. Listen, we can call it due diligence and maybe it just was. You can say it's no big deal. You can say it's perfectly normal. And maybe it is. But the fact of the matter is, the Steelers did have a formal combine interview with Ty Simpson. A guy who's been linked to Sean McVay. And as I've said many times on here, if Sean McVay's interested, then so am I.
Ty Simpson says, I love Mike McCarthy. I love the Steelers. We went back and forth talking about past concepts, protections, talking about situations. It's cool to see all the quarterbacks he's worked with, Dak and Aaron Rodgers, the situations that's come up in his career. And they asked me what I thought about it. We were just going back and forth. So you can say all you want.
You don't think this is going to happen. You might be right. The fact of the matter is they've had a formal interview with Ty Simpson. The fact of the matter is a lot of people have linked the Steelers to to Ty Simpson in the first round. And I know Jerry Dulac has put out there in his chat that it's ludicrous, but sometimes things change.
Jerry also had in his chat four years ago, there was quote zero chance that Kenny Pickett, or maybe that was in Jerry's story, even on draft day, there was zero chance that Pickett would be drafted by the Steelers and that Mike Tomlin, quote, only has eyes for Malik Willis. Well, maybe that would have been the better pick, to be honest with you.
So, again, anything anybody wants to say or point to about how ludicrous it is that the Steelers would take Ty Simpson, let's just follow the facts as they move along. They've had a formal interview. And once you're in the door for an interview, you can change people's minds. Look at Tomlin. He wasn't going to be the guy.
When he interviewed for the Steelers job, but the second he walked into that room, he captivated the room and won him over. I don't know how it went with Ty Simpson. Nobody could. For all I know, Omar and Mike McCarthy are also on their way back to the combine like Dulac or from the combine like Dulac and Fittipaldo. Maybe they're all traveling together. Maybe.
And they're saying to each other, wow, man, that was impressive. And this kid has enough impressive tape on his resume that I'm intrigued. Maybe Mike McCarthy's saying that. Maybe Omar or Andy Weidel is saying that. And I would imagine Weidel's traveling with them. Who do you think drives in that scenario, Sean? McCarthy, probably? Yeah. Well, so does Omar. So does Andy, for that matter.
They all know their way around Pittsburgh. I think McCarthy's behind the wheel. Takes him up to Greenfield, shows him the old house at 1137 Greenfield Avenue. A really nice car. Winnebago? Maybe. How about that if they took an RV? Maybe. Listen, man, you don't know how that went. You just don't know. He has enough good tape in one year where he impressed people the first half of the season.
They were talking about him and not the Steelers, everybody in the top 10, top five. Then he had bad games. The game nobody talks about, however, is the playoff game against Oklahoma where he was great. Second half, especially. He was great. Nobody mentions it. Then they mention the Indiana game, but they forget to tell you he had a cracked rib and came out right after the half.
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