Rich: The Rams’ Ty Simpson Selection Makes a Lot of Sense with Myles Garrett Trade Hindsight

For weeks, the take on the Rams was that they botched it. They held two first-round picks and came away without getting anything for Matthew Stafford, and the howling at the gates was loud. Rich admits the show was part of that chorus. The Myles Garrett trade reframed the whole thing.

The key, in Rich's view, was Ty Simpson. By spending the 13th overall pick on a quarterback they believe in, the Rams gave themselves permission to part with next year's first, a second the year after and a third the year after that. They have a quarterback of the future in the building, and they are good enough right now to chase a star without flinching.

His plan, as Rich lays it out, is patience. Simpson gets to marinate behind Stafford and learn. Stafford, meanwhile, can take as long as he wants deciding how much longer to play, with one catch: keep playing this well and he will force the team's hand, and Simpson could grow a gray beard of his own waiting his turn. The fastest way to force that hand is to put another trophy in the case.

Did the Rams see this coming on draft night? Rich does not think they had it locked, but he suspects the talks heated up right after the draft precisely because they landed the quarterback they wanted. The shop was set up for them to pick up the phone.

What stung the fan base was the pick itself. Plenty of evaluators had Simpson as a second- or third-round prospect. Outside the Simpson household, Rich noted, the believers were Dan Orlovsky and, apparently, the Rams, with maybe the Cardinals lurking to trade back in. So Rich poses the what-if: what if Simpson is so good that Los Angeles refused to risk him going to a division rival in Arizona, kept him, and then went and got Garrett and Trent McDuffie on top of it?

That is two AFC Pro Bowl starters added to a roster that was already loaded. Sure, the Rams will miss Jared Verse, the show allowed. Then came the obvious retort: that return is Myles Garrett. The complaint evaporates.

A lot of the credit, to Rich, belongs to general manager Les Snead. Snead drafted Jared Goff first overall, then kept trading first-round picks for years until he landed on Verse in 2024. He flipped Goff and two first-round picks for Stafford, who delivered a Super Bowl and a great MVP season. He worked the board to grab Simpson, and hit so squarely on Verse that the Browns demanded him as the centerpiece of the Garrett deal. Rich also rattled off the executives who keep putting trophies in cases, names like Howie Roseman, Brett Veach and John Schneider, the company Snead now keeps.

As for Garrett himself, Rich keeps reaching for the same phrase, first-ballot, and his colleague Chris went further, placing Garrett in the conversation with Reggie White. Rich could not argue.

The point underneath it all is connection. The Rams feel good coughing up a one, a two and a three not just because Garrett is Garrett, but because they already have the young quarterback they want to develop. Every move ties back to that one.