One of the more intriguing prospects heading into Thursday’s first round was Ty Simpson, the former Alabama quarterback.
Simpson’s projected landing spots were all over the board. Some evaluators viewed him as a top-10 pick, others had him going in the middle to late first round, and several projections even had him slipping into the second round.
However, he didn’t have to wait long to hear his name called, as he was somewhat surprisingly selected No. 13 overall by the Los Angeles Rams.
While it was always a possibility the Rams could take a quarterback given the uncertain long-term future of Matthew Stafford, the move still caught many off guard. Los Angeles is firmly in win-now mode, making the decision to spend a first-round pick on a player who will likely sit for at least a year or two.
Adding to the surprise, Simpson revealed during a SiriusXM interview shortly after being drafted that he had never even met Rams head coach Sean McVay prior to the selection.
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While the Rams aren’t known for meeting with a large number of prospects before the draft — especially considering they’ve made just one other first-round pick since 2016 — not meeting with just the fourth first-round quarterback in franchise history, and a player who could be the future of the team, could raise some concerns.
For now, however, McVay made it clear in his post-draft interview alongside general manager Les Snead that this is still Stafford’s team, with Ty Simpson set to compete with Stetson Bennett and Jimmy Garoppolo.
“Let’s make one thing clear, this is Matthew’s team,” McVay said. “You get a chance to be able to address the backup quarterback. We’ve got Stetson. 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.”
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