After months of mock drafts and football experts weighing in on which players could be selected by which teams, the 2026 NFL Draft is well underway. It’s one of the biggest turning points in a wide-eyed football player’s career. The prestigious event encompasses flashy suits, family hugs, and even tears of joy. Los Angeles Rams fans, however, may have tears of sadness or anger after the Rams’ Ty Simpson selection with the 13th pick in the 2026 NFL Draft.
Due to a trade last season with the Atlanta Falcons, the 13th pick was a “free” draft pick the Rams could utilize to dethrone the Seattle Seahawks. It was a chance to select a hungry player who could change the course of a franchise. Instead, general manager Les Snead and head coach Sean McVay elected to use this prized pick on a backup quarterback with only 15 college starts in the huddle.
Why The Rams Ty Simpson Selection Was A Wasted First-Round Pick In The 2026 NFL Draft
Los Angeles is built to win now. They had a taste of euphoria when they won the Lombardi Trophy during the 2021-2022 season, and now the Rams are aggressively charging towards another. They’ve only been a few plays away from reaching another title game, and last season exposed the flaws that need to be addressed to achieve that goal. Los Angeles added star power at the cornerback position by trading for former Kansas City Chiefs Trent McDuffie and complementing him by signing Jaylen Watson, thus reuniting the former teammates. This was the biggest need that the Rams had to fill, and they used one of their two first-round picks to do so.
If anything, Los Angeles could’ve traded back to make up some of the draft capital they sent to Kansas City for McDuffie. Selecting Simpson at pick 13 was severely over-drafting him, especially when the team still had other needs. Offensive lineman are always in demand for teams because of their value, and with breakout star wide receiver Puka Nacua entering rehab earlier this month, pass-catching became a must.
USC standout Makai Lemon and other top wide receivers were still on the board, as were some offensive linemen such as Olaivavega Ioane from Penn State and Monroe Freeling from Georgia. Taking Simpson is essentially saying, “We’re foregoing our chance to have Matthew Stafford ride off into the sunset with another Super Bowl, and instead focus on life after he retires”. Drafting Stafford’s replacement in the 2026 NFL Draft is a disrespectful slap in the face to a player who’s trying to win one more Super Bowl, and who’s done so much for the team and city.
Snead and McVay’s thought process is to sit Simpson behind Stafford for a year or two, then let him compete for the starting job. The track record of a first-round quarterback being successful with less than 20 starts is slim to none. The most recent examples are Mitch Trubisky, Dwayne Haskins, Anthony Richardson, and Trey Lance, all of whom were drafted within the top 20 picks of their respective drafts.
It can be argued that the more college starts a quarterback has, the more likely he is to achieve success in the NFL. Bo Nix, Jayden Daniels, Baker Mayfield, and Justin Herbert all had over 40 collegiate starts. Jared Goff, Trevor Lawrence, Lamar Jackson, Caleb Williams, and Jordan Love are notable quarterbacks with at least 30 starts. This isn’t to say that the number of starts a quarterback has directly corresponds to success (Kenny Pickett with 49, Paxton Lynch with 38, Patrick Mahomes with 29, and Joe Burrow with 28), but the trend seems to favor a higher success rate with more experience.
Next year’s NFL Draft is projected to be a much stronger quarterback class than this season, namely Julian Sayin (Ohio State), Dante Moore (Oregon), Arch Manning (Texas), C.J. Carr (Notre Dame), Jayden Maiava (USC), LaNoriss Sellers (South Carolina), Sam Leavitt (LSU), and John Mateer (Oklahoma), to name a handful. As of now, the Rams own their first and second round pick next season.
Why not get a passer with one of those picks in a much higher graded class? While Simpson was projected as the second-best QB in the 2026 NFL Draft behind Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza, is that really saying much if the QB class itself is weak? It’s been shown that Stafford needs to be upright and relatively healthy for the Rams to compete. If Simpson is drafted in part as an insurance policy in case Stafford gets injured this season, the draft positioning that Los Angeles would have next year suffers.
McVay has such an energetic and optimistic personality, so when something is bothering him, it shows. This looked to be the case when McVay was speaking with reporters after the Rams selected Simpson. He was dejected and noncommittal, but at the same time, almost defending the choice. He said he likes Simpson’s mobility, and the system Alabama ran is very similar to the one McVay has in place.
There are a couple of key comments McVay made that suggest he wasn’t entirely on board with the pick. He stated, “When you do look at it, I think the thing you liked about the body of work is — let’s make one thing clear, this is Matthew’s team.” McVay later continued, saying, “There were a lot of players that we liked”. He obviously wants to keep his relationship with Stafford intact, and he can’t necessarily be faulted for that.
Despite these comments, Snead reiterates that he and McVay are in lockstep with each other regarding major roster decisions. This situation echoes the similarity with the Cleveland Browns’ war room in the 2025 NFL Draft. The look on Kevin Stefanski’s face when the Browns selected Shedeur Sanders was the equivalent of a usually animated McVay keeping his hands in his pockets during Thursday’s press conference.
Can Simpson Silence The Doubters?
Simpson started the season as a Heisman Trophy candidate, but faded later in the season. In his last six games, including the College Football Playoff, Simpson threw for 1,106 yards, seven touchdowns, and four interceptions. Alabama lost three of its last six games, losing to Oklahoma, a rematch with Georgia, and a blowout by eventual national champions Indiana.
One interesting note is that a win during these six games involved FCS opponent Eastern Illinois, where Simpson went 11-16 for 147 yards and two interceptions with no touchdowns. This game was a huge indicator that Simpson wasn’t ready for the pros. Even though Alabama obliterated EIU, a far inferior opponent, Simpson had nothing to do with it.
On the flip side, Simpson may turn out to be a solid starting quarterback. He’s in a system where he can thrive, a plethora of offensive weapons around him, and the rare opportunity to sit and learn behind a future Hall of Fame QB. Stafford has always been a team-first guy, so Simpson will learn a lot from him, ala Aaron Rodgers learning from Brett Favre or Patrick Mahomes learning from Alex Smith. Rodgers and Mahomes turned out to be two of the greatest quarterbacks to ever play the game, but there’s a difference between them and Simpson.
Rodgers was a major factor in his team’s college success at Butte and Cal, and Mahomes lit up the Big 12 while at Texas Tech. Simpson could be a product of Alabama’s prestige, but the truth is, it’s too early to tell. Snead and McVay have a long history of hitting on draft picks, so Rams fans will have their fingers crossed that Simpson doesn’t spend his tenure in Los Angeles holding a clipboard.
