Everyone Misread the Ty Simpson Draft Fallout

I think one of the big losers in this draft, Albert, are, uh, us, and not me and you.

Uh, I'm a loser, but that's fine.

Uh, uh, collective us, the, the royal us, OK?

And the reason why is because I think we were all just sort of hot under the collar for something to happen during this draft.

And so the Rams take Ty Simpson, and let me just tell you, OK?

The, the roller coaster that I went on, uh, during this.

You watch the Sean McVeigh press conference, he's upset and you're like, oh my God, they fought about this pick.

The next day, there's like 800 stories out that are like, listen, like sources inside the Rams say no one's upset, and then you sit there and you think, OK, buddy, like, way to try to put a PR spin on this.

But then, you sit with your own thoughts for 2 seconds and you say, how insane would it be?

For Sean McVeigh and less need to have essentially gotten into a fistfight over Ty Simpson in the draft room and then Rams PR said it's a really good idea for Sean to go talk to the media right now.

This was coordinated.

Sean tried to act a certain way so that Matt Stafford wouldn't feel like he was being shoved out the door, and then I think it just snowballed in a way that got out of control.

And so I like, and I could be totally wrong on this, but if you think that Sean McVeigh, that Les Snead does not want Sean McVeigh's blessing for a quarterback, you're out of your mind.

You're out of your mind.

Let me just say this.

The idea that the Rams would take a quarterback in the first round without Sean McVeigh's blessing might be the dumbest thing I've heard in 2026, and there are a lot of contenders this year.

Um, I, I like the Rams, that the Rams would risk their relationship.

With one of the five best coaches in football, right?

And that may be too big a group to, to, to, to, to, to, to link him to.

Uh, like, what, like, do you really think that would happen?

Like, it's just, that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

And I, I just like, it's, it, it, it like it, it strains, it like hurts for me to hear people say that because it's just like, uh, like you want to jump through your screen and say, what's wrong with you, you know.

Um, that like Sean McVeigh would somehow get overruled in that situation is insane.

So, you know, I, I do think like, in that situation, you're trying to be deferential to, to, to Matthew Stafford and like, and, and, and, and, and, and it went a little too far.

Um, but that's the idea.

And look, it's like sort of an old school way of thinking about these things, like, You know, I'll tell you a, a, a, a good story because I think that this sort of relates back to it.

But, you know, I remember when I was covering the Patriots and You know, in 2007, they had a first-round pick named Brandon Merriweather, who came out of the University of Miami.

And You know, I, I, like I had, I had built a, a good relationship with him.

And so after a training camp practice one day, um, I got him one on one, and, um, you know, he talked about what a great experience it was.

They had moved him to slot corner.

And he talked about what a great experience it was to cover Wes Welker.

So he said, as part of my piece, this is great.

I get to cover the best slot rece slot receiver in football.

Um, every day, you know, what a great opportunity.

So the next day, the back of the Boston Herald, they splash summer school, you know, as a headline.

And it's like , and it's like Meriweather, Mayriweather, you know, taking his lump's learning from, from Wes Welker whatever, a good training camp story, you know.

So the next day, in the Patriots meeting room, that back page is up on the overhead projector, and Bill Belichick says, I wanna read you guys something.

I Brandon Brandon Merriweather said.

I'm so fortunate that I get to cover the best slot receiver in all football.

And he pauses and looks at Merriweather and says, Brandon Merriweather, how the fuck would you know who the best slot receiver in, in all football is?

And Mayriweather didn't talk to the media again for two months.

So, like, I, I, I, I really like, honestly, like, I just think that there is a, there, there's still like a rank and file to all of this stuff.

And, you know, if you're a, a new group coming in and, you know, like you, like you say to the Raiders right now, it's like, OK, like, we can pump up Mendoza and everything else.

Like, they have a quarterback in, in, in, in, in LA who is going to the Hall of Fame, who is the reigning MVP.

And they just use a pick that they could have used on Makai Lemon or Omar Cooper, whoever else to help him on a guy who is not gonna help Matthew Stafford win football games.

That's a delicate situation, you know.

And I remember I witnessed it when the Patriots drafted Jimmy Garoppolo and Tom Brady was there.

I mean, these are, These, I mean, we saw it with Jordan Love and, and Aaron Rodgers, right?

Like these are situations that do need to be managed.

And so, like I, like I think that the forward-facing part of it, you know.

I, I, I, I think, I think Sean knows well enough to know that that stuff can be digested, chewed up, and spit out by anybody any way they want.

The hysteria over these things can spin out of control really, really quickly.

And he was trying to be careful and probably went too far.

Uh, it's a tough line to thread.

Matthew Stafford is notoriously maniacal.

Um, Sean McVeigh needs another year out of him, but Sean and Les and the Rams can't continue to do what they've been doing, which is this weird stalemate, and then Stafford, you know, and understandably wants to get paid a certain way.

And then last year he was in a high-tech back revival chamber for half of training, you know what I mean?

And so it's, it's just like you needed someone else.

You weren't gonna get that high.

I can dislike the pick for my own reasons, and I said this on draft night too, Albert, that I think that Sean in perpetuity can always get the best veteran quarterback, and I think that, you know, maybe, maybe he finally wants to Stafford, right, so.

Yeah, I mean, I agree with that.

I just think, I think this like frees them up in a lot of ways, you know, um, you know, I think like, when you look at like how great next year's draft class is, like the idea that you use that capital like in different, like, it's just, I, I think.

Like, this is now taken care of for a team that's probably not gonna be drafting high enough to get a CJ Carr or a, or a, or a Dante Moore, whoever it is that's at the top of the class.

You know what I mean?

And at some point , you do have to address it.

And if you really like the guy, here's the reality of it, OK?

The reality of it is, 4 years from now, either they hit on him.

And it is like what an unbelievable pick that was and they knew better than us.

Like that's Jordan Love, right?

Or they miss and it, it is just such a yes or no thing at that position, you know what I mean?

Like, and so either Ty Simpson is what they think he's gonna be, which is, you know, a different type of quarterback than Matthew Stafford is, but one that fits their offense really well as a timing and rhythm passer, right.

And they're able to kind of reset and and be OK like now we're, we're in the next era of Rams football in 2028, call it, right?

and like now we're set up for the next 10 years or you aren't, and that was a waste of a pick and and it's just, it's such a yes or no thing, you know, but it, but, but I think in the time being it gives you, you know, it takes care of that, that, that, that question.

You walk away from this.

With the two first-round picks, one was Trent McDuffie, the other is, is Ty Simpson, ostensibly, right?

And, um, you know, now, I, I think, I think you move forward with all that cat with, with, with, with, with, with, with your powder dry and doing anything else going forward because that's taken care of.

Yeah, I mean, I, I don't know.

I just, um, I, I'm interested in, you know, it's funny, I was cleaning up my bookshelf the other day and uh I, I don't, someone mailed me a copy of Bruce Arians' book called The Quarterback Whisperer, and, uh, which is like bold title for a, uh, for your bio biography, right?

But then you look at the quarterbacks that he coached, and so he went from like Peyton Manning.

Uh, to Ben Roethlisberger, to Andrew Luck, to, uh, Carson Palmer, to Tom Brady, and it's like, well, how much whispering was going on there and how much of it was like you had the epic James here and there too.

Well, there was a James here and there too, and, and , and how much of it was consequently, Albert James was not mentioned on the cover of that book, right, uh, but like.

You know, how much of that was whispering and how much of it was you just slamming into like 8 generational quarterbacks in this, uh, in this elevator.

Um , but, you know, with McVeigh, it's interesting because, you know, and I wrote about this all on draft night, right?

That like, the, the mythos behind all this is incredible because McVeigh and, and Shanahan and Kevin O'Connell are great coaches.

We're lucky to have them.

But this idea that you flip a switch and you hand somebody to this coach and he can make you or I, maybe me because Albert was an all-state uh high school quarterback.

But like can make any of us operate a successful NFL a few in a few weeks you're gonna, you're gonna like claim that I like fight at LSU or something.

That's what we're building to, um, but you know the, the fact that they cannot just flip a switch and, and, and make a quarterback great.

OK.

Kyle Shanahan had CJ Beer first, in the 1, 3rd-round pick, right?

And he wasn't good.

He needed Jimmy Garoppolo, who was already experienced and he was a better player, right?

Um, he tried Trey Lance, wasn't good, needed to fall into Brock Purdy, and then they had a combo with Mac Jones there.

Uh, Kevin O'Connell made his bones on a team with Kirk Cousins who'd already been to like 3 Pro Bowls before he came to Minnesota.

Now, Kirk had a lot of good years with Kevin O'Connell.

Um, but then he went to Sam Darnold .

Same thing, right?

And now JJ McCarthy, we're not sure.

He had to go get Kyler Murray.

Sean McVeigh, What are the two quarterbacks that we talked, you know?

He did a great job with Jared Goff, but Jared Goff ended up being good somewhere else.

OK.

2 #1 picks, 2 #1 overall, two number 1 picks, right?

Matthew Stafford, same thing.

And then everyone always talks about the whole Baker Mayfield Thursday Night Football game.

I think, you know, you could make an argument that that's just as much Baker as it was Sean McVeigh for Baker learning a playbook in, in 24 hours, right?

And then he goes to Tampa Bay, Albert, and he's a, he's a valuable, he's a quality starter, right?

I mean, I mean, so I'm, and I'm just, I'm just saying we need to challenge that from time to time because everyone who thinks that Ty Simpson's automatically gonna work out is wrong.

Uh, because we just don't know.

I mean, he, he, he , we might not be, right?

We don't know.

Yeah, we don't.

And, and it's, you know, like I said , I think it's just.

This one's really interesting for me, just cause I, I, again, he's a different type of quarterback, um.

Sean won with Kirk Cousins in Washington.

He got really good seasons out of Kirk Cousins in Washington when he was a young quarterback.

So it's not like he hasn't worked with guys who, you know, weren't like the, weren't, you know, like a cyborg from a, from a, from a throwing standpoint, you know.

So like I, I'm just interested to see the way it turns out.

By the way, if anybody wants to read something this morning, we do have like the Rams' logic and what they liked in, in Ty Simpson.

Um, there's a lot there, um, and kind of what they saw in him and maybe, and even a couple of specific plays that you can pull up from Alabama that show kind of what the Rams saw in him, um, which helped me understand it a little bit better too.

But again, like this is, this all comes back to being a yes or no thing.

Um, and whether or not you think Ty Simpson is gonna make it as an NFL quarterback, which I'm skeptical of that, like I'll be honest, but I mean the guys who are making that decision in LA know a whole lot more than I do about, about the position, no doubt, uh, it's probably what Connor might try to sell you.

Albert can sling it, man.

I don't know what you guys are talking about.

Uh, you should see there's, there's the Gruden, uh, QB camp.

The Breer QB camp is just, we haven't released any of the footage yet.

It's exceptional.

Uh, you should see him with Diego Pavia breaking down, uh, breaking down cover too.