Sean McVay didn't seem to be enthused about the selection of Ty Simpson

The Rams threw everyone a curveball by making quarterback Ty Simpson the 13th overall pick in the draft. Then came another one.

During the post-selection press conference featuring G.M. Les Snead and coach Sean McVay, McVay seemed to break character.

McVay almost always effuses positivity, about everything. Rarely does he deviate from projecting that vibe. It happened after the Thursday night loss to the Seahawks, which featured the kooky two-point conversion that tied the game in the fourth quarter. Eighteen weeks later, it seemed to happen again.

McVay kept quiet. Most of his answers were short. He plunged his hands in his pockets while Snead explained the reasoning for picking Simpson. As to the question of what it was about Simpson that made him the choice, it was Snead not McVay who provided the response.

“I think that at the end of the day, probably processing football, someone who can execute a passing offense," Snead said. "He has mobility. So that's probably the macro. There are a lot more variables that go into it, but that's the macro I would say."

McVay didn't add anything to Snead's response about the macro, or the micro.

Later, McVay said this about the arrival of Simpson: "We've talked about the importance of Jimmy [Garoppolo]. To be able to add somebody that you can evaluate a body of work where he was asked to play the position and a lot of things that do translate in terms of concepts, reading with his feet, some of the different things in the drop back in the play-action game and the movement game. There are a lot of things that [Alabama offensive coordinator Ryan] Grubb did that's very similar to how we operate so it made it an easier evaluation to be able to say, ‘Alright, what would that look like if he did translate it to our level?’"

Still, McVay didn't seem to be enthused. Perhaps it was a next-level effort to underscore the notion that Simpson wasn't drafted as a way to kick Stafford to the curb, like the Packers did when picking Jordan Love during the latter years of Aaron Rodgers's tenure in Green Bay.

"[L]et's make one thing clear, this is Matthew's team," McVay said.

If McVay wasn't simply playing quasi-bad cop as part of a strategy to underscore Stafford's status, it's a very strange outcome. McVay is one of the best quarterback coaches in the league. Why would the Rams pick Simpson if McVay wasn't all-in with the approach? McVay has accomplished enough in ten years with the Rams to have veto power when it comes to such an important selection at the position in which he specializes.