Was Andrew Whitworth Surprised By the Ty Simpson Pick?

Andrew Whitworth was not surprised the Rams drafted Ty Simpson in the first round, and he could explain the move better than most because he has been the veteran on the other side of it.

Asked on the show whether the pick caught him off guard, Whitworth said it did not.

"I just look at what's been going on with Matthew kind of at one point not really sure how long he was going to play," Whitworth said. "Then there was last year of kind of the dollar amount and the contract. It feels like, not in a negative way, but just Matthew trying to figure out what does he want the back end of his career to look like."

Whitworth pointed to the Rams' organizational pattern under Sean McVay. The team has always been willing to make the next move now rather than later.

"If we have a high enough pick, why would we not want a quarterback of the future that might not play for four years, but the reality is we've got it. If you like this guy enough, why wouldn't you do it?"

Then he told Rich the story he said he had already shared with Stafford.

In 2015, Whitworth had asked the Cincinnati Bengals for an extension. He never got an answer. The week of the draft, the media asked him about it, and Whitworth dared the franchise on the record to pick a left tackle.

"They didn't just draft a left tackle, Rich," Whitworth said. "They drafted a first-round left tackle and a second-round left tackle."

Whitworth played seven more years in Cincinnati after that. The parallel he drew was direct.

"Matthew Stafford will play the game of football in the NFL for as long as Matthew Stafford wants to," he said. "Anybody would be absolutely insane to not want this guy to be your quarterback. And I think the Rams feel the exact same way. You are going to be the guy here until you don't want to be the guy here anymore."

Whitworth added that the pick is still allowed to bother Stafford. Both things, he said, can be true at the same time.