What Drafting Ty Simpson Means for Stafford’s Control of His Rams Future

Dominic, a Broncos fan, called The Rich Eisen Show with a take that hit closer to home than most. Drafting Ty Simpson at 13, he argued, is the same kind of insurance policy Denver wished it had when Bo Nix went down. He even floated Simpson as a Bo Nix player comp. Investing premium draft capital in a reliable backup, Dominic said, is huge.

Rich agreed there is more to talk about. The one question he held back from Les Snead in their interview was whether the Rams really plan to enter a season where Matthew Stafford could win it all behind a backup room of Stetson Bennett and Ty Simpson. Rich said he does not know about that. He would try to bring Jimmy Garoppolo back if it were his call.

Then the show ran the numbers that fed Dominic's comp. Simpson posted the fourth-lowest interception percentage in a season among quarterbacks at current power-five schools over the last 10 years, with a minimum of 450 attempts. The list is led by Bo Nix in 2023 at 0.6 percent. Caleb Williams and Dak Prescott sit next at 1.0 percent in their seasons at USC and Mississippi State. Right after them at 1.1 percent are Simpson last year and Joe Burrow in 2019. Rich noted what Dominic, as a Broncos fan, has already seen with Nix. He does not put the ball in danger. Rich credited the coach's son background.

From there Rich opened up the bigger question, the one Snead had to dance around in their interview. Stafford is 38 going on 39. He is old by NFL quarterback standards. But if he wants to keep playing, the floor is his. The condition is what changes. The floor is yours, Rich said, until it is not your decision anymore.

That was the pivot. Rich brought it back to himself with what he called an only half-joke. He has told his agent, Jerry Silverwitz, the same thing for years. He never knows when he will get tapped on the shoulder. The show got tapped in 2019. They shrugged it off. Nobody wants the shoulder tap. Everyone wants to be the one tapping themselves.

Applied to Stafford, the math gets uncomfortable. If Stafford wants to keep playing into his 40s and then throws a couple of interceptions, the rookie behind him changes the temperature in the room. When the Dolphins were picking 12th overall, Stafford was the one tapping himself on the shoulder. After Los Angeles spent pick 13 on a quarterback, that is no longer the case.

Rich said his preferred script would have been to let Stafford ride it out as long as he wanted, then open the chair to the league and see which Pro Bowl quarterback wanted to force a way into Los Angeles. That, he conceded, is not a plan. A plan is drafting Ty Simpson. They love him. Simpson and Sean McVay get along and share a brain. If Simpson is a Bo Nix type, tough, not huge in stature, big in playing style, connected to the head coach, then McVay chose his guy the same way Sean Payton chose Nix. The rest of the league had Simpson pegged as a second-round pick. So his selection at 13 reads loud. The most important reaction, Rich said, is not his or yours or anyone else's. It is Stafford's. And nobody wants the shoulder tap.