Les Snead Reveals Why the Rams Selected Ty Simpson With the 13th Overall Pick

Les Snead pulled back the curtain on The Rich Eisen Show and explained why the Los Angeles Rams used the 13th overall pick on Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson. The short version is that the move was set up a year in advance and is about more than just a 2026 depth chart.

Snead traced the timeline. The Rams secured a bonus first-round pick the year before. That pick ended up being the 13th overall. In the offseason, Matthew Stafford told the team he wanted to keep chasing special with them. With that decision in place, Snead and his staff identified the defensive backfield, particularly the corner room, as a top need. Free agency filled part of the gap. Signing Jaylen Watson opened a path to also pursue his former teammate. The Rams used their original first-round pick at 29 on Trent McDuffy, a move Snead said solidified their top wants on defense.

That left pick 13 as bonus territory. And now Snead got honest with Rich about the part of the job that does not get said out loud often.

Matthew Stafford is on his way to a Hall of Fame career. The Rams want him in Los Angeles for as long as possible. Everyone in the building knows the playing window has an end date. So when Snead made the move for Simpson, the goal was not just a current backup. It was about future flexibility. If your franchise quarterback is approaching the back end of his career, you typically have to hold future picks in reserve in case you need to spend them on a quarterback. Drafting a developmental quarterback now, Snead explained, frees those future picks to be used on other players or to acquire veterans like McDuffy. That, he said, is the algorithm. That is the formula.

Rich pushed back. Why stick and pick at 13? Could the Rams have traded down? Snead acknowledged they were definitely thinking about it. The interest in trading back dissipated around picks 11 or 12 once a few specific players came off the board. The Rams had a contingency that allowed them to move down and still land Simpson, but once the better trade-back scenarios disappeared, they decided to stay put.

The last thread Rich pulled on was the Stafford situation. How does Snead handle keeping Stafford in the fold for as long as he wants?

Snead leaned into the human side. We are in the age where AI is about to take over, he joked, but it has not yet. Anytime you are dealing with people, you are dealing with sensitive delicacies. It comes down to communication. Snead described Stafford as very smart, capable of comprehending the big picture. Stafford has the resume. Snead said he has done it. There is no nervousness. The only question is how much more of it Stafford wants to do, and how much more he wants to chase special. At the end of the day, Snead said, Simpson is going to learn far more from Stafford than Stafford has to navigate around the franchise's planning.