NFL Execs Agree With Rams’ Decision to Draft Ty Simpson

While media questioned the pick, NFL executives largely support the Rams drafting Ty Simpson in the first round.

Aug 17, 2024; Inglewood, California, USA; Los Angeles Rams general manager Les Snead during the game against the Los Angeles Chargers at SoFi Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

When the Los Angeles Rams drafted quarterback Ty Simpson with the 13th overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft, it certainly took the NFL world by surprise. It’s not often that a team that just lost in the NFC Championship Game is drafting 13th overall. 

With the Rams in a perceived ‘win now’ mode, many expected them to draft a player who could help Matthew Stafford and the current roster. Offensive weapons Makai Lemon and Kenyon Sadiq were common targets for the Rams in media mock drafts. 

Ever since the Rams took Simpson, the pick has dominated conversations in the media. How could a team that was so close to potentially winning the Super Bowl punt on the 13th overall pick and not take a player that can contribute now? 

NFL Executives See the Pick Differently

The Simpson pick, along with the Rams’ draft in general, has been largely criticized in the media. However, executives around the league are looking at it differently. The Athletic’s Mike Sando recently asked coaches and executives around the league what they thought of each team’s draft. Said one executive on the Rams drafting Simpson, 

“The tight end (Kenyon Sadiq) upgrades them, but not significantly. Lemon has a feel for the game and can do some of the underneath things, but at some point, they do need to think about their future, just like every team.”

This is a case where multiple things can be true at the same time. The Rams aren’t just trying to win now, but also trying to sustain success. When the Rams went all-in for their Super Bowl run in 2021, it was thought that the bottom would fall out and they would face a multi-year, major rebuild. 

Following the 2022 season, many would have thought it was more likely that Stafford would retire within the next three seasons than win MVP. While they had one down year, they’ve been in the playoffs every season since.

Coming into the offseason, the priority for the Rams was rebuilding the cornerback room. They accomplished that in free agency by trading for Trent McDuffie and signing Jaylen Watson. The Rams took a win now approach in free agency and then focused on filling future holes in the draft as most teams should. In its purest form, the draft is meant as a tool to build for the future. The concept of ‘win now’ or ‘all in’ and the draft can’t co-exist. 

It’s easy to compare what the Rams did to the Packers in 2020 when they drafted Jordan Love. After making the NFC Championship game, the Packers drafted Love instead of helping Rodgers. However, unlike the Packers that offseason, the Rams had financial flexibility to add to the defense, which was the Achilles heel for most of the season. The Packers didn’t have the ability to invest a lot of money into one player. However, the Rams were able to trade for and extend McDuffie while also signing his teammate. They were also able to keep Kam Curl who played an important role at safety. 

The Rams were able to invest in the ‘now timeline’ with the additions of McDuffie and Watson, which allowed them to focus on the ‘future timeline’ in the draft.

Rams Had 'Genius' Plan for Simpson

At the end of the day, if the Rams are able to compete for another Super Bowl and Simpson works out, they will be seen as geniuses. As another executive said, “If they planned this to play out the way it did, it was genius.”

While Simpson does have some athletic limitations, he also couldn’t be going to a better situation. “McVay will get everything there is to get from that kid,” a coach said. “You put a good enough team around him, he can get you a little ways.”

To get the most discussion out of the draft, the media has to talk about it as this hig- stakes part of the offseason. That’s not to say that the draft doesn’t matter, but those in the league have to look at the draft in terms of who is going to be on the roster in 3-5 years.Those are two vastly different lenses. For fans and the media, it’s hard to care about what’s going to happen in that timeline while what happens now is the only thing that impacts us. 

It’s impossible to know immediately whether or not the Rams made the right decision by taking 

Simpson. However, the reactions of the media and those in the league are on two completely different sides of the spectrum.

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