“The Rams went back, they charted all these plays. You see, so many RPO-based offenses, including for Fernando Mendoza, and it’s not NFL style stuff. They charted over 60 snaps where Ty Simpson turns his back to the line of scrimmage on play action, which is a fundamental part of the Sean McVay offense. You see him process pre- and post-snap, you see them make NFL reads and NFL throws. The questions are the size, it’s the durability; he’s 6-1 and change, was around 200 pounds — under 200 when he suffered from gastritis at the tail-end of last season. He had elbow bursitis, he had a lower back issue, he cracked his rib and couldn’t finish out the Rose Bowl — those are all chances, in addition to the fact that the guy’s only started 15 games. But if you go back and you transfer — just ask Carson Beck, Garrett Nussmeier, Drew Allar — you can get over evaluated sometimes. Teams can pick at all your scabs if they have too much tape and you start to look at them, and break in all the things he can’t do versus what he can.
“The upside is still there for Ty Simpson. The Rams are betting on that upside in a big way by using the No. 13 pick. … For Les Snead, he is setting this thing up for the long haul. It doesn’t happen very often, particularly when a player is playing at as high level as Matthew Stafford. But you have to understand, this is what it was going to take for the Rams to get him. Les Snead was on this for months. This was not willy-nilly, we got stuck, and we took a guy. This was Les Sneed’s guy, and we’ll find out in the years to come how well it works.”
Much was made about McVay’s disposition following the first round as the Rams head coach met with the media alongside general manager Les Snead. McVay had brief answers, declined to tell what he told Simpson on the draft call and made it a point to declare L.A. was still Stafford’s team, which breathed the thought of his unhappiness to some.
Despite the mind readers and body-language experts, there were no surprises in the Rams’ draft room on Thursday night, according to Pelissero, who added that the club informed Stafford of their plan to take Simpson ahead of time.