Before Thursday night, the Rams didn’t have a clear No. 2 quarterback behind Matthew Stafford. Now, at a minimum, they have a first-round rookie who’ll compete with 2023 fourth-rounder Stetson Bennett to be Matthew Stafford’s 2026 understudy.
On Friday night, a much happier Sean McVay was asked whether the selection of Ty Simpson closes the door on the possibility of bringing back 2025 backup Jimmy Garoppolo.
“I wouldn’t say that,” McVay said. “I don’t want to say completely closed, but I would say this. You guys know how much I appreciate Jimmy and what he could really do. I always viewed him as a starting-caliber quarterback. I wouldn’t say he’d ever close it, but by being able to do what we did last night, it probably lessens the level of urgency for that position. I certainly would never say never in anything like that.”
Before the draft began, McVay said he’s hoping that Garoppolo (who reportedly is considering retirement) has a “change of heart.” It’s unclear what the Rams would have done at No. 13 in round one if Garoppolo had re-signed. Since Simpson is a pick for the future, they may have taken him anyway — with Simpson taking Bennett’s place at No. 3 on the depth chart.
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Rams coach Sean McVay says quarterback Matthew Stafford reacted just the way the Rams hoped he would by the team spending its first-round pick on his heir apparent, Ty Simpson.
McVay said on ESPN that Stafford has been a consummate professional and will be supportive of Simpson.
“He couldn’t be more of a stud,” McVay said. “When you’re an elite competitor the way he is, he responded exactly the way I would want to. He’s going to put his arm around this guy. . . . He’s like, ‘I understand it.’ He’s earned the right to be year to year, and if he tells me he wants to play three more years, no one would be more excited about that than me.”
McVay said having Simpson on the team will make it easier to give Stafford some time off in practice, something that a player Stafford’s age can benefit from.
“Going into Year 18, you manage his workload,” McVay said.
Stafford is heading into the final year of his contract and has considered retirement, and Simpson was picked to be ready whenever Stafford walks away. But McVay wants Stafford to know that he’ll walk away of his own volition, and that the Simpson pick wasn’t about pushing Stafford out.
At a time when too many people in positions of prominence want us to not believe our lyin’ eyes, Rams coach Sean McVay admits that, on Thursday night, what we got was what we saw.
In comments to reporters after the second day of the 2026 draft, McVay acknowledged that he was “grumpy” the night before, following the selection of quarterback Ty Simpson with the 13th overall pick in round one.
McVay had some fun with the situation from the outset of his comments.
“What do you guys think?” McVay said, in a joint press conference with G.M. Les Snead. “Am I angry right now? I will say this, though, the one thing that would never be doubted is we couldn’t be any more lockstep in every decision that we make. I get my demeanor last night, but we’re excited about it. There are different things. I always want to be mindful of how things come off and things like that. I’m very excited about last night and very excited about today. We couldn’t be more excited about us continuing to lead together, but every decision that we make is collective and collaborative. For any of the questions or misunderstandings just based on my demeanor or disposition last night, I did want to get that out of the way. This is my buddy right here. That was brought to my attention because I got so many texts. That was never my intended way to be able to come off, but sometimes I can be a little grumpy.”
Which raised an obvious question. Why was he grumpy?
“Well, there were other things that had nothing to do with that, which that’s normal life,” McVay said. “The main thing was . . . I couldn’t be more excited about being able to add him, but also understanding how much I love Matthew Stafford, how respectful you want to always be and to the way things can be interpreted. The demeanor would’ve been stoic by nature because you are excited, but by no means — it is Matthew’s football team.
“I’m excited to be able to add Ty. What a blessing it is for him to be able to learn from Matthew and to be able to come into this atmosphere and environment. Whenever that time comes for him to get an opportunity to be Matthew’s successor will be on Matthew’s terms. I think that’s really what the important thing was. I didn’t want that to ever be misunderstood while not minimizing the excitement for Ty and the buy-in. Les and his group really liked him. As soon as we started really studying him, there was a body of work, like I talked about, that was a good, fun evaluation. A lot of the concepts that we would activate. The guy is a football junkie and plays with the timing and rhythm. You can see that he’s a coach’s son. His journey is a fun one that he’s been through.”
As we discussed McVay’s way on Thursday night on Friday’s PFT Live, we eventually got around to the idea that McVay calibrated his demeanor as a message to Stafford that he’s not being replaced or even nudged. The notion that the reigning MVP would have his successor taken in the first round of the next draft — with a pick only three spots out of the top 10 — is borderline laughable. It puts the move in the category of Cousins-Penix and Rodgers-Love.
For the Falcons, the shocking move resulted in Kirk Cousins being benched for Michael Penix Jr. during his rookie season. For the Packers, Love sat for three years. And Rodgers won the MVP award in both of Love’s first two seasons on the bench.
McVay wants everyone to know the Rams remain Stafford’s team for as long as Stafford wants that to be the case. While the organization must plan for a future without Stafford, McVay wants everyone to know Simpson is an insurance policy, not a starter-in-waiting who possibly won’t be waiting very long to start.
And if McVay was going to err on one side or the other, he opted to err on the side of sending a signal that would seem to be an indictment of Simpson in order to ensure that Stafford wouldn’t get the impression that the clock is now ticking on the Rams deciding that it’s time to close the door on him.
The Rams famously used plenty of multi-tight end sets during the 2025 season.
Now they have another player who could make an impact among that group.
Los Angeles selected Max Klare out of Ohio State at No. 61 overall in the second round of the 2026 draft.
Klare spent his first three collegiate seasons at Purdue before transferring to Ohio State for 2025. He caught 51 passes for 685 yards with four touchdowns in 2024. He was a first-team All-Big Ten honoree in 2025, though he caught 43 passes for 448 yards with two TDs.
In his 32 collegiate games, he caught a total of 116 passes for 1,329 yards with six TDs.
He is the second offensive pick for the Rams in 2026 after the club selected quarterback Ty Simpson at No. 13 overall on Thursday night.
Whether it’s a Kirk Cousins/Michael Penix Jr. situation or an Aaron Rodgers/Jordan Love situation, the Rams have a situation regarding their current and future quarterbacks.
And the current starter could be playing beyond the upcoming season.
Via Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, the Rams and Stafford are “deep in discussions” covering 2026 and beyond. The Rams believe there’s a “real chance” Stafford will play beyond the 2026 season.
On one hand, it’s obvious that there’s a “real chance” 2026 won’t be Stafford’s final season; there had been no prior indication that 2026 would be Stafford’s last year. But the presence of Ty Simpson makes the question more relevant. And the circumstances more awkward.
Simpson hasn’t played a lot of college football. That was one of the knocks on him. “Limited sample size.” And the sample size won’t grow much, if things go as planned in 2026.
That’s the source of the consternation as to the decision to draft Simpson. The best-case scenario for the Rams means Simpson gets no regular-season experience — unless the Rams are blowing teams out to the point at which the Rams empty the bench.
However it goes, the Rams have the reigning MVP. For perhaps the first time in NFL history, the team with the reigning MVP drafted his eventual replacement in round one. In lieu of getting someone who could help the Rams get past the Seahawks and get to the Super Bowl, they opted to make a pick for the future.
And, at this point, the future could be 2028. Or maybe even 2029.
It’s been a tumultuous offseason for Rams receiver Puka Nacua.
But after seeking some professional help, Nacua has been involved in Los Angeles’ offseason program. In a radio interview with ESPN Los Angeles on Friday, G.M. Les Snead provided a positive update on the young wideout.
“You know what, Puka’s doing really, really well. It’s really, really cool to see,” Snead said. “We’re in a profession where, hey, young men are probably … people that are carrying the most responsibility, right? They’re players on the field and they have the most responsibility for an organization. So, where a lot places, the people in your organization who are carrying the weight-bearing load are often older, more experienced, a little wiser. So, the neat thing in this business is to be there when someone does have a hiccup, someone does stumble, and to go, you know what, been there, done that, we can get off the mat, we can apply some lessons, we can get better and see them become. I always say, they’re young men becoming men. And I’m 55 years old and I’m still becoming. And I’m not sure I’ll ever get there, but we’re always striving to do it.
“I’d say, one of the more fulfilling things about being in sports, is dealing with a subset of people that are still getting there. … But to see people like Puka grow, it’s a fulfilling — it’s one of the reasons, if not the main reason, you do it. It’s definitely one of the reasons that makes this more fulfilling than anything.”
Nacua, who turns 25 at the end of May, led the league with 129 catches and 107.2 yards per game in 2025. Now that he’s through the third year of his rookie deal, he is extension eligible and it stands to reason that Los Angeles would like to get him signed to a second contract in the next couple of months.
After the Rams selected quarterback Ty Simpson at No. 13 overall on Thursday night, head coach Sean McVay was noticeably subdued during his press conference with General Manager Les Snead.
Whatever the reason for it, McVay’s reaction was enough to get Snead asked about it — and the reaction of reigning MVP Matthew Stafford — during a Friday radio interview with ESPN Los Angeles.
“I think Sean had a chat with Matthew before last night. And that’s one thing that Matthew’s definitely earned,” Snead told The Sedano and Cap Morning Show. “It’s one of the things that we’re working together to go through it. Matthew is on his way to, I would say this, a Hall of Fame career, right? And he still has gas left in the tank. And big picture, our vision’s always been, hey, let’s make the most of this time with Matthew and his teammates — let’s chase special together, however long that may [last]. I mentioned at the beginning of the segment, there’s no timeline on this. The longer, the better. Matthew just came off an MVP season, so if he continues playing, it’s like, this is better for everyone involved. ‘
“And I think at the end of the day, Sean and I are going to always work together in these types of decisions. ... But there was a lot that was going on into maneuvering that draft. So, we’re in lockstep. We work together. We’re collaborative. It’s him and I partnering to try to do the best for the Rams.”
The Rams currently have six selections remaining in the 2026 draft, including No. 61 overall in the second round and No. 93 overall in the third round on Friday night.
The Rams threw everyone a curveball by making quarterback Ty Simpson the 13th overall pick in the draft. Then came another one.
During the post-selection press conference featuring G.M. Les Snead and coach Sean McVay, McVay seemed to break character.
McVay almost always effuses positivity, about everything. Rarely does he deviate from projecting that vibe. It happened after the Thursday night loss to the Seahawks, which featured the kooky two-point conversion that tied the game in the fourth quarter. Eighteen weeks later, it seemed to happen again.
McVay kept quiet. Most of his answers were short. He plunged his hands in his pockets while Snead explained the reasoning for picking Simpson. As to the question of what it was about Simpson that made him the choice, it was Snead not McVay who provided the response.
“I think that at the end of the day, probably processing football, someone who can execute a passing offense,” Snead said. “He has mobility. So that’s probably the macro. There are a lot more variables that go into it, but that’s the macro I would say.”
McVay didn’t add anything to Snead’s response about the macro, or the micro.
Later, McVay said this about the arrival of Simpson: “We’ve talked about the importance of Jimmy [Garoppolo]. To be able to add somebody that you can evaluate a body of work where he was asked to play the position and a lot of things that do translate in terms of concepts, reading with his feet, some of the different things in the drop back in the play-action game and the movement game. There are a lot of things that [Alabama offensive coordinator Ryan] Grubb did that’s very similar to how we operate so it made it an easier evaluation to be able to say, ‘Alright, what would that look like if he did translate it to our level?’”
Still, McVay didn’t seem to be enthused. Perhaps it was a next-level effort to underscore the notion that Simpson wasn’t drafted as a way to kick Stafford to the curb, like the Packers did when picking Jordan Love during the latter years of Aaron Rodgers’s tenure in Green Bay.
"[L]et’s make one thing clear, this is Matthew’s team,” McVay said.
If McVay wasn’t simply playing quasi-bad cop as part of a strategy to underscore Stafford’s status, it’s a very strange outcome. McVay is one of the best quarterback coaches in the league. Why would the Rams pick Simpson if McVay wasn’t all-in with the approach? McVay has accomplished enough in ten years with the Rams to have veto power when it comes to such an important selection at the position in which he specializes.
Maybe the Rams had grown weary with the year-to-year uncertainty surrounding Stafford. Still, if/when Stafford retires, the Rams would be a very attractive destination for any and all available free agents. With Stafford committed for 2026 (they still need to work out a contract), they can worry about whether Stafford will play next year after this year.
The internal argument to roll the dice on Simpson may have been that the 13th selection was a bonus pick, thanks to the trade with the Falcons that gave them Atlanta’s 2026 first-round pick.
“There were a lot of players that we liked and there was a lot of thought that went into it,” McVay said. “We do feel really fortunate that when you look at the 13th pick, we were able to get that where Atlanta had an interest in getting a player last year. We would’ve taken [Terrance] Ferguson with our first-round pick last year. To move back and to still get the guy that we wanted, and then to basically be able to get an extra pick and then, oh by the way, with your original one, go get a player like [cornerback] Trent McDuffie.”
McVay possibly thinks they could have done the same thing with Simpson. Trade down and get Simpson later. While it would have been a calculated risk, 13 was on the high side for Simpson. Taking him that high makes it even harder to sell the idea that Simpson wasn’t drafted with an eye toward Simpson taking over, like when the Falcons made Michael Penix Jr. the eighth overall pick only six weeks after signing Kirk Cousins.
"[W]e’re always going to make decisions that we think are best for the short and the long term,” McVay said. “We will be excited to be able to get to work with [Simpson]. That’s where we’re at.”
Here’s where they’re at now. When Snead and McVay speak tonight, McVay will be asked about his demeanor from Thursday night. The good news is that he has all day to come up with a persuasive answer.
Still, he’ll need to sell it a little better than he sold it after the Simpson pick was made.
The Rams picking quarterback Ty Simpson with the 13th overall pick in the draft came as a surprise to everyone, including Simpson, who didn’t hear from Rams coach Sean McVay or General Manager Les Snead at any point in the pre-draft process.
Simpson said that other than meeting some Rams scouts who came to Alabama’s Pro Day, he was in the dark about the Rams’ interest.
“It was really brief,” Simpson said of his interactions with the Rams. “I met with some scouts at Bama and that was really it. They talked to my agent but it was really not much.”
Simpson didn’t visit the Rams and said playing in the Rose Bowl is the only time he’s been to Los Angeles. Simpson’s father is the head football coach at UT-Martin and has been in touch with Snead, but Simpson said he personally hasn’t met Snead or McVay.
“This was my first time talking to Les, tonight,” Simpson said. “This was my first contact.”
At the Rams’ press conference after picking Simpson, McVay looked rather unenthused, leading to speculation that McVay wanted Snead to pick a player who could help Stafford win another Super Bowl, not Stafford’s heir apparent. McVay also said only that Simpson would get a chance to compete with Stetson Bennett for the backup job.
But while it’s fair to question whether McVay and Stafford are happy to have Simpson, Simpson says he’s very happy to work with them.
“I haven’t talked to Matthew yet but I’m super pumped to be in the room with him and learn from him,” Simpson said. “He’s one of the greatest of all time. We watched his film all the time when I was with Bama, the stuff he did, the stuff the Rams did with Coach McVay, so the fact that I can soak up all that knowledge, I couldn’t ask for a better situation.”
In the biggest surprise so far in the 2026 NFL draft, the Rams have selected Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson with the 13th overall pick.
That makes Simpson the heir apparent to Matthew Stafford, who has mused about retirement.
Simpson was widely regarded as the second-best quarterback in this draft, behind No. 1 overall pick Fernando Mendoza, but few expected Simpson to go off the board within the first half of the first round.
Rams General Manager Les Snead and head coach Sean McVay, however, are believers in Simpson and think he can develop into a franchise quarterback in McVay’s offense.
How much longer Stafford is the Rams’ starting quarterback remains to be seen, but now the Rams know who’s next. Simpson is the Rams’ pick tonight, and the Rams’ pick to be their quarterback of the future.
