Why Ty Simpson's first 2 months with Rams will be important as he teams up with Matthew Stafford

When Tua Tagovailoa signed with the Atlanta Falcons, and when Justin Fields was traded to the Kansas City Chiefs, a similar narrative of opportunity unfolded.

The teams’ incumbent quarterbacks, Michael Penix Jr. and Patrick Mahomes respectively, are recovering from late-season ACL tears. Each is aiming to return by Week 1 but in serious question for offseason participation.

So Tagovailoa and Fields likely await acclimation to new teammates not only in the locker room and meetings. Their onboarding to new schematic principles and terminology will likely not be confined to mental reps.

Tagovailoa and Fields should each get plenty of offseason and preseason snaps, including reps with the starters.

Ty Simpson, selected 13th overall by the Los Angeles Rams last week in the NFL Draft, could find a similar opening.

The Los Angeles Rams do not have an injured quarterback in the driver’s seat. And reigning MVP Matthew Stafford is not fighting to retain his role after the Rams selected the Alabama quarterback with their first pick of the 2026 NFL Draft.

But Stafford’s preseason limitations due to an aggravated disc in his back last summer, and his subsequent MVP campaign, taught the Rams a lesson.

Expect them to limit the 38-year-old’s offseason and preseason work yet again.

And thus expect Simpson to have a chance to acclimate on the field soon.

Rams general manager Les Snead spoke to that reality last month at the league’s annual meetings in a conversation with Yahoo Sports about the challenges of investing in the immediate future while planning a longer-term outlook.

Los Angeles is realistic, Snead said, that when “you go through a quarterback transition, that’s a cliff.” The club hopes managing Stafford in the offseason can firstly support his late-season performance and secondarily support the depth chart’s development for their post-Stafford era.

“The way we manage Matthew, at least our backup QB is going to get more reps,” Snead told Yahoo Sports on March 30. “But it's going to come during OTAs. It's going to come during some portions of training camp. And then once the season starts, so that's the tough part.”

Without 2025 Rams QB2 Jimmy Garoppolo in the fold, Simpson will compete with 2023 fourth-round pick Stetson Bennett to allocate snaps. Bennett may have a leg up on understanding the offense at first — but head coach Sean McVay reiterated before the draft that “Stetson is considered a backup” compared to how he viewed Garoppolo as a starting quarterback.

It strains credulity to think the Rams would select Simpson 13th overall without a belief Simpson will be, if not already is, a starter. And thus, opportunity during Stafford’s cautionary period awaits.

“The most important thing is, when you’re going into Year 18, how do we keep you as physically, emotionally and mentally, basically as fresh as possible?” McVay said in a news conference. “[Using our other quarterbacks] allows us to operate in a manner where you're saying, ‘All right, hey, what's the priority? How do we keep our guy feeling as good as possible?’

“And being able to do that without allowing it to fall off too much.”

‘There's moments where I think he's better than Fernando [Mendoza]’

Creating a succession plan for any contributor, much less an MVP- and Super Bowl-winning quarterback, is a tricky balancing act.

But the Rams’ belief in their Super Bowl-contending legitimacy fuels their belief that a potentially strong class of 2027 first-round quarterbacks will be out of reach by the time Los Angeles gets onto the draft board next year (they hope to pick 32nd). The most successful quarterback currently set to hit free agency in 2027 is Baker Mayfield, whom the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will likely extend before then.

All of this made the path to a Stafford successor next year murky. And while Stafford has confirmed he’ll play in 2026, his status in 2027 and beyond remains to be seen.

Add to that a young, talented corps that includes Puka Nacua, Jared Verse, Kobie Turner, Byron Young and Braden Fiske? The Rams will have choices to make on second contracts. Consider that 2025 first overall pick Cam Ward received a four-year, $48.8 million deal that averages $12.2 million per year (the division of cap hits is malleable). Compare that to the veteran quarterback market, where 10 quarterbacks have received contracts averaging more than $50 million per season? The Rams want to extend their Super Bowl window by positioning themselves financially to keep their young stars beyond Stafford’s era.

So drafting Simpson, the Rams believed, has the potential to answer a major question mark as soon as 2027. The Rams are also not naive enough to feel sure they won’t need Simpson in 2026.

“Sometimes you might take someone and it's a little bit for the future and you have an unforeseen attrition due to injury, and all of a sudden, the delayed becomes the immediate,” Snead told reporters in a pre-draft news conference. “So you're always balancing that with every pick. And I think, as you mentioned, that's subjective on where our roster ranks and things like that.”

An AFC talent evaluator told Yahoo Sports they graded Simpson similarly to Bo Nix coming out. The two quarterbacks’ volume of experience differs drastically — Nix started a massive 61 games in college, compared to Simpson’s 15 — but Simpson’s best moments this past season reflected NFL-caliber play.

“There's enough really good film of him this year,” the AFC evaluator said. “There's moments where I think he's better than Fernando [Mendoza] when I watch Fernando.”

Simpson ranked third among quarterbacks on Yahoo Sports’ 2026 NFL Draft consensus big board from draft experts Nate Tice and Charles McDonald. But he ranked as their 55th prospect overall, compared to Mendoza at second overall and LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier at 34.

Will that be enough to earn Simpson the second-string snaps behind Stafford, and the first-team snaps when he’s on veteran mandatory rest? Snead spoke to the challenges of earning any spot on a perennial playoff team.

“Usually it is very hard for any rookie to come into an ecosystem like ours that has the efficacy,” Snead said. “We've won before, so it's hard for those players to come in and earn equity. [We] try to find players that give us an edge and then put them in the ecosystem. Let them earn equity. And at the right time, they'll get on the field.”

Why Simpson looks like a natural fit in L.A.

McVay explained his muted draft-day expression the following day.

“The demeanor would have been stoic by nature because you are excited but … it is Matthew’s football team,” McVay said on Friday, in part. “Whenever that time comes for [Simpson] to get an opportunity to be Matthew’s successor will be on Matthew’s terms.”

If Simpson does need to wait a year or three before seeing meaningful action in live games, the experience will be familiar.

In the transfer-happy era of college football, Simpson made the rare decision to stay at Alabama his entire college career. He did not attempt more than 25 passes until his fourth and final season. Then, he completed 64.5% (305 of 473) of his attempts for, 3,567 yards, 28 touchdowns and five interceptions.

Simpson led the SEC in completions and attempts, ranking second in passing yards and passing touchdowns. Alabama finished 11-4 in his 15 starts.

The 6-foot-2, 208-pound quarterback raised concerns from some evaluators who believe his slighter frame contributed to his 2025 injuries and could increase his injury risk going forward. But even in his one-year sample size, Simpson impressed the Rams with his ability to process, his mobility, his versatility from dropback passing to play-action, and the timing and rhythm with which he threw.

His late-season performance dipped from his 2025 start, which evaluators attribute to a mix of playing through injury and playing tougher competition. Regardless, Simpson is aware he has room for refinement.

“There's not a throw that I feel like I can't make on the field,” Simpson said, “but it's also, I got to make sure that I throw it on time.”

Stafford health permitting, Simpson won’t be thrust into immediate regular-season action. But if he is, the Rams believe Ryan Grubb’s Alabama offense last season was rooted in similar principles to those which McVay asks of his quarterback.

And first, expect Simpson to receive opportunities over the next couple months to immerse on and off the field. He’s entering a team with the oldest starting quarterback in the league under contract. (Aaron Rodgers can change that if the 42-year-old signs his Pittsburgh tender or another deal.) There are practice benefits that come with that in spring and summer.

And once the regular season hits, Simpson will have opportunities to learn as the reigning MVP digests film, acts on his instincts and manipulates defenses with his footwork.

Simpson knows how to play the waiting game after three years sitting at Alabama. He’ll begin by focusing on improvement rather than expectations.

“I learned that from Coach [Nick] Saban about how if you have expectations, you're always really bound to fail,” Simpson said. “If I come in here and say, ‘Well, I want to win rookie of the year,’ well, Matthew Stafford just won the MVP. That's going to be a fail. So my plan is to just get better each day.

“I just want to get better each and every day so eventually I have a long career like Matthew.”

Making it to 18 seasons, like Stafford?

Somewhere, a 2043 class first-round quarterback will be waiting.