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The Los Angeles Rams were able to surprise the NFL world Thursday night with their selection of Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson due to some “secret” pre-draft meetings.
Simpson, 23, said the Rams wanted to throw other teams off their scent by keeping the meetings quiet.
“I had some secret meetings with coach (Sean) McVay and I was just trying to be on script and do what everybody told me and not tell anybody,” Simpson said during a recent interview with ESPN Radio.
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Ty Simpson of Alabama celebrates after being selected as the 13th overall pick by the Los Angeles Rams during the first round of the 2026 NFL Draft at Acrisure Stadium in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on April 23, 2026. (Emilee Chinn/Getty Images)
Simpson said he knew the Rams were interested but wanted to keep it low-key.
“We tried to keep this under wraps as long as we could,” Simpson said. “It was something where I knew they were interested, but they wanted to do it privately and didn’t want people to know they were interested.”
The Tennessee native compared talking to Rams head coach Sean McVay during the “secret meeting” to being like a kid in a candy store excited about his new situation.
“It was great, we met at the facility and it was something where we just talked for hours, it was just football. It was just football and it was like a kid in a candy store. Me and him sitting there, just going back and forth. You can see the obsession he has for the game and you can tell the love he has for the quarterback game,” Simpson said.
“It’s something that I appreciate and it’s something that I enjoy because I really enjoy playing the position and appreciate the position. So to be with him and get to know him and see a little bit of how I would be coached if I was lucky enough to go, that was something. I couldn’t have asked for a better situation.”
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Ty Simpson of the Alabama Crimson Tide warms up before the College Football Playoff quarterfinal against the Indiana Hoosiers at Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, Calif., on Jan. 1, 2026. (CFP/Getty Images)
The selection of Simpson was so surprising because the Rams are in win-now mode. While the Rams may be ahead by drafting their quarterback of the future, the No. 13 overall pick could have been spent on a player at another position who could impact the team this season.
Matthew Stafford played some of the best football of his career in his 17th season and won his first MVP last year with the Rams. However, the 38-year-old quarterback first announced he would return for another season when he ended his MVP speech with the news.
With Stafford’s future seemingly uncertain after next season, the Rams got a jump on their heir apparent in Simpson.
McVay said during a press conference Friday that he is excited for Simpson to learn from Stafford.
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Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay walks onto the field at Lumen Field after the 2026 NFC Championship game against the Seattle Seahawks in Seattle, Washington on January 25, 2026. (Kevin Ng/Imagn Images)
“I’m excited to add Ty. What a blessing it is for him to be able to learn from Matthew and to be able to come into this atmosphere and environment. When the time comes for him to have an opportunity to be Matthew’s successor, it will be on Matthew’s terms. I think that’s really what was important. I didn’t want that to ever be misunderstood, while TyV said the excitement, and not minimizing.
“Les and his group really liked him. As soon as we started really studying him, there was a piece of work that I talked about that was a good, fun evaluation. A lot of the concepts that we wanted to activate. The guy is a football junkie and plays with the timing and the rhythm. You can tell he’s a coach’s son. His journey has been a fun one.”
OutKick’s Clay Travis said Simpson would be a perfect fit for the Rams before the NFL Draft began last week.
Simpson started just one season with Alabama, his last in 2025. In 15 games, he completed 64.5% of his passes for 3,567 yards with 28 touchdowns and five interceptions.
