Rams' Succession: Simpson or Burrow?

With Matthew Stafford not aging out yet but clearly closer to the end than the beginning, the conversation turned to the Rams' quarterback succession plan and whether Ty Simpson is the answer. Rich didn't bite.

Rich walked through the dream scenario first. Simpson in Los Angeles. Watching Stafford up close. Marinating in Sean McVay's offense. Les Snead assembling the roster around him. Then, when Stafford steps aside, Simpson walks into a loaded situation and extends his career into a decade-plus. If Rich were Simpson's family, agent, or Simpson himself, that is the outcome to push for. A hundred percent. Catbird seat. Industry-acknowledged catbird seat.

Then Rich flipped it into a What's More Likely. Option A, the Rams draft and groom Matthew Stafford's successor. Option B, Stafford's successor is someone else's current blue-chip A-plus-plus Pro Bowl All-Pro quarterback who raises his hand NBA-player style and demands a trade to Los Angeles.

Rich said option B. And he kept saying it. The Rams, he argued, sit in the exact kind of seat that a disgruntled star quarterback stuck on a bad roster dreams about. A proven coach. A proven GM. A full war chest of picks. A playing experience in the Super Bowl relatively recently. If you're a franchise quarterback tired of losing somewhere else, Los Angeles is the call.

Co-host Mike Del Tufo tried to get him to name names. Maybe an MVP. Maybe a guy who's played in a Super Bowl. Maybe a guy who plays in the AFC. Rich waved it off. He wasn't saying names. Brockman accused him of being the least subtle breadcrumb dropper on the show, at one point literally turning the guy's last name into a verb. Rich insisted he was just throwing darts.

Brockman finally got tired of dancing. He said Rich had been saying this for months. He said the crew could play the new drop, the one Mike the producer had been hinting at, and Rich still wouldn't answer. Rich confirmed he wouldn't.

The gag with burrow as a verb. The gag with dig as a verb. The gag with Stefon Diggs being a red herring. It was an on-air bit about a quarterback Rich refused to name on air, but whose name nobody watching actually needed him to say.

The point underneath the comedy was legitimate. The Rams don't have to settle. They don't have to draft in the middle of round one for a Ty Simpson project. If a disgruntled star wants out, Los Angeles is the destination. That's what Rich has been telegraphing for months.

They might play for animals.