{"id":603925,"date":"2026-04-24T16:23:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T16:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/603925\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T16:23:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T16:23:08","slug":"sean-mcvay-comes-off-as-muted-mad-after-rams-surprise-pick-of-alabama-qb-ty-simpson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/603925\/","title":{"rendered":"Sean McVay comes off as ‘muted,’ ‘mad’ after Rams’ surprise pick of Alabama QB Ty Simpson"},"content":{"rendered":"

The biggest surprise in Round 1 of the 2026 NFL Draft<\/a> came from the Los Angeles Rams<\/a>, a win-now team that opted to draft its quarterback of the future<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With the 13th overall pick and plenty of talent still on the board, the Rams selected Alabama passer Ty Simpson as the heir apparent to Matthew Stafford<\/a>. It was quickly reported<\/a> that head coach Sean McVay had spoken to Stafford earlier in the day to notify him about the decision to draft a quarterback.<\/p>\n

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Stafford\u2019s reaction to the pick will be interesting. But what really stood out Thursday night was McVay\u2019s reaction.<\/p>\n

Round 1 grades<\/a> | Best available players for Day 2<\/a> | Draft guide<\/a><\/p>\n

Speaking with reporters alongside Rams general manager Les Snead after the pick, multiple members of the media noticed McVay, well known for his animated personality, seemed subdued while talking about the pick.<\/p>\n

You can judge for yourself:<\/p>\n

When asked about speaking with Stafford, McVay confirmed he did and said \u201cI\u2019ll keep that between us\u201d to the natural follow-up question of what was discussed. When asked if Simpson would back up Stafford, McVay bluntly said \u201cWe\u2019ll see, he\u2019s going to compete with [incumbent backup Stetson Bennett].<\/p>\n

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Snead, who reportedly has a strong relationship with Simpson\u2019s father and advised him about entering the draft<\/a>, was noticeably more energetic. Simpson also said on Sirius XM that he had never met McVay<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That said, since 2020, McVay hasn\u2019t met a prospect before the Rams have drafted them, according to The Athletic\u2019s Jourdan Rodrigue<\/a>, who also noted that McVay doesn\u2019t attend the NFL combine or pre-draft all-star events. Plus, the Rams don\u2019t do top-30 visits, per Rodrigue.<\/p>\n

At one point, Snead and McVay were asked if they had specifically targeted Simpson in the draft and McVay reeled off an answer that lasted for well longer than a minute. An excerpt:<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a lot of players that we liked. When you do look at it, I think the thing you liked about the body of work is \u2014 let\u2019s make one thing clear, this is Matthew\u2019s team. You get a chance to be able to address the backup quarterback, we\u2019ve got Stetson, we\u2019ve talked about the importance of [former Rams back-up Jimmy Garoppolo<\/a>], so to be able to add somebody that you can evaluate a body of work that he was asked to play the position and a lot of things that do translate: concepts, reading with his feet, some of the different things in the dropback and the play action game, the movement game.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo there\u2019s a lot of things that [Alabama offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb] did that\u2019s very similar to how we operate. So it made it an easier evaluation to be able to say, \u2018Alright, what would that look like if he did translate it to our level?\u2019 But there was a lot of players that we liked and there was a lot of thought that went into it.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are several possible outcomes from here. Stafford could keep playing for years and keep the Rams regularly competitive. Simpson could take over quickly and become a star. Simpson could take over quickly and become a bust.<\/p>\n

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Yahoo Sports\u2019 Charles McDonald is not one of the optimistic voices, giving the selection an \u201cF.\u201d<\/a> Simpson posted a good season with Alabama last year, but also faded down the stretch and doesn\u2019t quite have the physical traits in you see in top quarterback prospects.<\/p>\n

Whatever happens, Thursday night represented a shift for the Rams, and McVay\u2019s reaction could end up being dissected repeatedly if it doesn\u2019t work out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The biggest surprise in Round 1 of the 2026 NFL Draft came from the Los Angeles Rams, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":603926,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[58293,262698,1820,1833,178356,99,8025,79383],"class_list":{"0":"post-603925","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-jimmy-garoppolo","9":"tag-les-snead","10":"tag-los-angeles-rams","11":"tag-matthew-stafford","12":"tag-sean-mcvay","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-stetson-bennett","15":"tag-ty-simpson"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=603925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603925\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/603926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=603925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=603925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=603925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}