Rich Weighs In on the Rams’ Stunning Ty Simpson 1st-Round Draft Selection

The Los Angeles Rams' decision to spend the 13th overall pick on Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson was the kind of choice that turns a draft night into a referendum, Rich argued at the top of The Rich Eisen Show, framing the selection as a wager on a quarterback of the future at the exact moment a Super Bowl-built roster needed a piece for the present.

Rich opened by reminding the audience that draft verdicts almost never survive contact with time. "It usually takes 3 to 5 years to figure out if a draft choice was good or a draft class was perfect," Rich said. "However, we don't wait around three minutes, let alone three years to figure this sort of thing out."

The Simpson pick, he said, fits a recurring pattern of teams using premium capital to look over the steering wheel rather than out the windshield. He pointed to the Atlanta Falcons taking Michael Penix Jr. weeks after signing Kirk Cousins as the most recent precedent, and noted that the very pick the Rams used on Simpson came from that same Falcons trade. "This was the Atlanta Falcons pick that over and over and over again last year, we're watching the Falcons lose and saying the Rams are getting a better choice," Rich said.

The optics, he said, did not help. The post-draft press conference featuring general manager Les Snead and head coach Sean McVay played differently depending on the lens viewers brought to it. "If you watch that press conference through the lens of these two guys were not on the same page, that the coach didn't want the quarterback 13th overall, the general manager did, if you watch that press conference through that lens, it is an uncomfortable long 15 minute watch," Rich said.

McVay's own framing did him no favors either way, leaning hard on the line that the Rams remain Stafford's team and clipping his answers about the conversation he had with his quarterback. "This is Matthew's team," Rich quoted McVay as saying, before noting that the coach declined to share details of the Stafford conversation. "Him saying he doesn't want to share the conversation with Stafford and him being so clipped in his answers makes you think the conversation with Stafford didn't go all that great."

The Rams, Rich noted, did spend the 29th overall pick on cornerback Trent McDuffy, a now-move that addressed an immediate roster need. The 13th pick, in his read, was the opposite. "Most likely on a what's more likely Friday will not help the Rams win a Super Bowl in this year with Matthew Stafford at quarterback or next year," Rich said.

Rich left the door open. Snead's track record on first-round picks, from Cooper Kupp to Puka Nacua to Jared Verse, has earned the front office the benefit of the doubt. "What if Simpson does have to get in there and what if he's really freaking good?" Rich said. The answer, he conceded, only arrives on a horizon that does not help Stafford now.