Alabama had their pro day on Wednesday and yes, the Cardinals were there.

(Why that would be news to anyone is confusing to me. The team would be foolish not to do due diligence on QB Ty Simpson, but much more importantly, the Tide have a ton of other potential options every team -- including the Cardinals -- will want to check out as we get closer to the draft. Alas, it doesn't stop the many posts of "X team is in attendance at Alabama's pro day. But I digress.)

Fernando Mendoza is going to be the No. 1 overall pick. That's how it should be. Is Ty Simpson the second-best QB? It sure seems like everyone thinks this. Should he be a first-round pick? Well, this is where it gets nuanced.

We can talk about a QB "rising" in the draft as we get closer, but I have never really subscribed to such things. "Rising" to me always means that the outside media is now catching up to where teams are really putting all these guys. And in a league always thirsting for more QBs and which inevitably has more than a few teams looking for their quarterback of the future -- the bucket in which the Cardinals now find themselves -- the second-best QB is almost always going to end up somewhere in the first round.

In this case, that is probably Simpson.

Teams need QBs. When you have guys with bigger question marks than others, and Simpson belongs in that category with only 15 college starts, he's not going to go high. But the roll of the dice to turn what talent he does have (and Simpson does have some good traits) is going to be worth it at some point. That's probably not going to be the second round anymore.

So no, I don't think Simpson is rising, really. I think he's going to end up going right about where the second QB in the draft class was always going to go. And teams will be ready for that accordingly.