Rams 1st round pick, #13…Ty Simpson

In drafting Ty Simpson, Rams miss chance to further strengthen a win-now roster

Nate Atkins

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7223984/2026/04/24/rams-nfl-draft-ty-simpson-first-round/?unlocked_article_code=1.dVA.StfI.EzxAS1ivwqTb&source=athletic_user_shared_gift_article_copylink&smid=url-share-ta

INGLEWOOD, Calif. — After a decade of waiting and trading draft picks, of going all in on a Super Bowl and paying the credit later, the Los Angeles Rams finally had a top-15 pick again Thursday night.

And when it came time to turn in the card for the No. 13 selection in the NFL Draft, Los Angeles threw out a curveball by taking a backup quarterback. The Rams drafted Alabama’s Ty Simpson as their bridge to a future beyond Matthew Stafford, even though they aren’t sure how much longer their MVP passer will play.

The willingness to go with this pick, rather than waiting for next year’s loaded quarterback class, offered a window into who the Rams really are under this regime: They are not all in on a Super Bowl. They are all in on the quarterback position.

Rather than let the bottom fall out of the most important position and enter quarterback wilderness whenever Stafford decides to hang up the cleats, the Rams locked in a path of some sort, though they aren’t sure what it will look like. They can’t know that because Stafford doesn’t know that yet, either.

“Let’s make one thing clear: This is Matthew’s team,” coach Sean McVay said Thursday night.

Can Ty Simpson take ‘Brock Purdy path’ with Los Angeles Rams?

This is a unique roster and a unique time and space for the Rams, who are fresh off a narrow loss in the NFC Championship Game, hoping to break through for another Super Bowl at SoFi Stadium — and also looking at a world beyond that window.

Whereas the Rams of a half-decade ago traded these draft picks for star players in order to maximize the limited years left for All-Pros like Aaron Donald and Jalen Ramsey, this version of the team is hedging somewhere in the middle. The Rams did trade a first-round pick this offseason for All-Pro cornerback Trent McDuffie, to address the biggest weakness on the roster.

Though many expected them to double down on the Super Bowl push with their highest selection since 2016, the Rams instead appeared to treat it as a bonus, justifying a pick for depth and the future.

It still produced a bizarre scene at the Rams’ draft headquarters Thursday at Hollywood Park. McVay and general manager Les Snead held an 11-minute news conference that featured no opening statement, none of their usual jokes and zingers, and few smiles.

“We’ll see,” McVay said when asked if Simpson would be his No. 2 quarterback this season. “He’s going to compete with Stetson (Bennett).”

That was the first statement he made about the 13th pick in the draft.

Across beats covering the Chicago Bears, Detroit Lions, Indianapolis Colts and now the Rams, this was the first time I’ve covered a first-round draft pick news conference where the regime showed so little excitement about the player selected. By contrast, when the Colts selected Anthony Richardson at No. 4 in 2023, their regime came into the news conference shouting, laughing and releasing pent-up excitement that was palpable with every breath.

It’s possible the Rams didn’t want to appear as if they were ready to move off of Stafford, who is in negotiations on a new contract. But there were ways for the Rams to talk up both quarterbacks in their abilities and upside and the long-term valuation of the role they play. After all, they aren’t the first contender to spend a first-round pick on a quarterback of the future, as the Green Bay Packers did with Jordan Love behind Aaron Rodgers, the Kansas City Chiefs did with Patrick Mahomes behind Alex Smith, and the San Francisco 49ers tried with Trey Lance behind Jimmy Garoppolo.

On its face, the Simpson selection was an attempt to chase that model used by other premier franchises. The messaging, however, presented it more as an afterthought than the driving motivation.

Perhaps it was a pick about needs more than wants. McVay has said previously that he struggled with the loss to the Seattle Seahawks in the NFC Championship Game as much as any in his career, knowing they were just a few yards away from facing the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl. But he is also renowned for his work with quarterbacks, and now the Rams were selecting one for him to mentor and mold for years to come, first while sitting and learning behind an MVP.

Although Snead and McVay didn’t display much emotion about the pick, Simpson appeared overjoyed and a bit shocked. The only time he met with anyone from the Rams in the pre-draft process was when a handful of their scouts attended a practice at Alabama.

“The fact that Sean McVay and the Los Angeles Rams took a chance on me — and he’s a quarterback genius,” Simpson said. “(Stafford) is one of the greatest of all time, quarterback-wise. We watched his film all the time when I was at Bama. … How cool, calm and collected he always is. He’s so smart. He can manipulate the defense, and he’s a gunslinger. He has no fear.

“As a quarterback, you have to have no fear when you’re in the huddle. He slings that ball all around, and he makes people better around him.”

Part of the strangeness of Thursday was hearing as much about Stafford as the quarterback the Rams selected. If the Rams had reasons for seeing Simpson as elite enough to spend the No. 13 pick on and wait at least a year to see on the field, it was difficult to find in the news conference.

“At the end of the day, processing the football,” Snead said of the pick. “It’s somebody who can execute a passing offense and has mobility. There’s a lot more variables that go into it, but that’s the macro.”

Snead was also impressed by Simpson’s resolve in a limited sample of just 15 starts last season, when he threw 28 touchdowns to five interceptions to lead Alabama to an 11-4 record and an appearance in the second round of the College Football Playoff.

“This was Ty’s first year starting, and then they go through what they did at Florida State — the world is ending,” Snead said. “… Even though they didn’t win their final game, they had a good run in the SEC and in the playoffs.”

The Rams had other options in the draft. They could have taken USC wide receiver Makai Lemon, who won the Biletnikoff Award as college football’s top wide receiver last season with 1,156 receiving yards and 11 touchdowns. They could have opted for Oregon tight end Kenyon Sadiq, who caught eight touchdown passes last season and, at 241 pounds, posted a 40-yard dash time of 4.39 seconds, the fastest of any tight end at the NFL Scouting Combine since at least 2003.

It’s unclear whether the Rams had an option to trade back.

“Like I’ve mentioned in here, the sea’s going to shape the 13th pick,” Snead said. “He had to fall.”

It’s hard to find any projection that had Simpson going in the top 20, however. But if the Rams felt sold on a quarterback of the future, it also stands to reason why they wouldn’t risk trading back to land that player.

It’s just difficult to rationalize this pick with the current build of the roster, which has given signs all offseason of entering another all-in push for a Super Bowl. In addition to trading for McDuffie and making him the highest-paid cornerback in NFL history at four years, $124 million, they also signed his running mate at cornerback from the Chiefs, Jaylen Watson.

So many expected the Rams to take a swing at an offensive skill player, as they’ve toyed with the idea of trading up for one in recent drafts.

It’s always possible, of course, that Simpson will see the field this year. Stafford is 38 and managing a degenerative back issue. He’s had four seasons derailed by serious injuries.

But short of an injury, the Rams chose to take the one position least likely to create that impact in a season with Super Bowl goals.

“I would say sitting up here, the vision has always been to chase special with Matthew Stafford. That’s the vision,” Snead said. “I hate sitting here and going, ‘You’re a player away in the draft from the Super Bowl.’

“At the end of the day, what we want to accomplish in the draft and (with) any acquisitions that we have is to try to engineer as competent of a team as possible, and then let’s go to work. Let’s get through May, let’s get through June, let’s come back in August, let’s then go to Australia and play Game 1 and try to be the best team and evolve and try to play our best football at the end.

“I don’t want to sit here in April and say, ‘OK, we draft one player, and now we go to the Super Bowl.’ There is a lot, a lot of hard work between this night and whoever is playing in that game in February.”

Greg Beacham@gregbeacham
Ty Simpson’s dad, Jason, is the coach at UT Martin, where he spent 6 seasons coaching QB Dresser Winn, who has gone through the past 3 training camps with the LA Rams.