There’s no small irony in the fact that the Los Angeles Rams used the pick they received from the Atlanta Falcons to choose an heir-apparent quarterback with a veteran QB already on the roster. Two years ago, the Falcons did the same thing, drafting Michael Penix Jr. shortly after signing Kirk Cousins.
But unlike the Falcons, the Rams made certain to give Matthew Stafford the heads-up that they would be drafting his possible replacement, Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter. Stafford has also built up a bit of equity that Cousins hadn’t in Atlanta; winning both an MVP and a Super Bowl gives you a bit of leverage.
In the first true shock of the 2026 NFL Draft, the Rams took Simpson at No. 13, long before most big boards’ projections. So is Los Angeles reaching, overvaluing a marginal quarterback in a QB-shallow draft pool? Or are the Rams playing 3-D chess, checkmating the rest of the NFL and keeping their dynasty going before it even shows cracks?
Either way, the results won’t be in for several seasons … which is a bold angle to take with a high pick.
Clearly, the Rams used that draft pick like a found $20 bill, spending it on a want rather than a need. Los Angeles was already one of the best teams in the NFL last season, and could afford to splurge on rich-get-richer luxury.
The draft ROI issue with picking a quarterback when you’ve already got a quarterback, of course, is that the new guy (presumably) won’t help you win in Week 1. Barring catastrophe, drafting a QB for development rather than immediate need is a long-term investment … and a high first round pick isn’t generally one you use on a long-term investment.
Yes, Stafford was the MVP last season, but even he can’t play forever — he’s 38, beyond the age when just about every quarterback not named Tom Brady began sliding downhill. And if all goes as expected on-field for the Rams, and if Los Angeles isn’t able to find a team as hospitable-slash-desperate as Atlanta prior to the stacked-QB 2027 draft, well, they could be sending Stafford into the sunset with no clear successor. Jimmy Garoppolo has flirted with the idea of retirement, Stetson Bennett isn’t a long-term answer.
Simpson could well follow the Green Bay path of Jordan Love, who sat for two years behind Aaron Rodgers. With two seasons to watch a Hall of Famer at work, Love entered his third year fully ready … and Green Bay has won 29 games and made the playoffs in all three seasons he’s started since.
For Simpson, this pick is like hitting a flush on the river. He was perhaps the last patient player college football will ever see. Recruited by Nick Saban, he waited his turn behind Jalen Milroe before finally starting last season. Reliably dependable, occasionally spectacular, he faded as the season went on, carrying the entire load for an erratic Alabama offense. He returned the Tide to the College Football Playoff, but was unable to do much against Indiana in the Rose Bowl. (He and Alabama weren’t alone in that particular struggle.)
Simpson said during the offseason that he turned down NIL offers in the neighborhood of $6 million to play one more year. Had he slid to the second round or lower, that would have looked like a disastrous mistake; now, his decision to turn pro looks both prescient and profitable.
The Saban imprimatur alone may have given Simpson the early benefit of the doubt; the five Alabama quarterbacks before him are all still on NFL rosters. But he’s smaller than most current quarterbacks, and questions still persist about his arm strength, his decisionmaking and his battle-ready skills — he’s only started 15 games, after all.
Yahoo’s Charles McDonald gave the pick an F: “An undersized QB without great traits going this high doesn’t make much sense … Maybe sitting on the bench behind Stafford will unlock some latent talent in Simpson, but the back half of his season was legitimately not good.”
The verdict on the Ty Simpson pick won’t come down until 2027 at least. By then, it will be far too late for the Rams to do anything but live with it … for better or worse.
