SI’s Albert Breer: How Pursuit of Myles Garrett Led to Rams Ty Simpson Draft

The Rams' decision to spend the 13th overall pick on Ty Simpson had nothing to do with helping Matthew Stafford win a championship right now. It had everything to do with Myles Garrett.

That's the throughline Albert Breer laid out on The Rich Eisen Show, connecting a move that confused many observers at the time to the bigger strategic play the Rams were running underneath it. Rich had flagged it earlier: Breer dropped a bread crumb when Simpson was drafted, hinting the pick was clearing a path. Rich picked it up and handed it back. Breer ran with it.

"Everybody back then was saying, what are they doing?" Breer explained. "They were four points shy of making the Super Bowl in Seattle's house against a Seattle team that crushed the Patriots in the Super Bowl. And that game would have been held in Los Angeles if it weren't for the funky two-point thing with Zach Charbonnet during the regular season. You're that close. Why are you spending the 13th overall pick on a guy who isn't going to help Matthew Stafford win a championship right now?"

The answer, Breer said, is that the Rams were never thinking about it that way.

"If we take care of this now and we really like this quarterback, that gives us flexibility to use our future draft picks in any way we want," Breer said, explaining the Rams' internal logic. He added that without securing their quarterback of the future at 13, those future picks would all be spoken for. "You might need a combination of all these different picks to go get your quarterback of the future. But if you get your quarterback now at 13 overall, now you're freed up to do whatever you want with all of those picks."

That freedom is exactly what made the Myles Garrett trade possible. Breer noted that the June 1st deadline was a factor here, much the same way it was for the Eagles and A.J. Brown. Not a fortunate situation, but one the Rams turned to their advantage. Because they couldn't use a 2026 pick in the Garrett deal before June 1st anyway, spending that pick on Simpson cost them nothing on the Garrett end. Meanwhile, all the picks they had accumulated for the future became available to include in the deal.

"You weren't going to touch it as part of the Myles Garrett trade anyway," Breer said. "And then you've got all those picks in the future to include as part of the deal."

The Rams liked Simpson more than just about anyone else did. But the real insight Breer was offering isn't about Simpson's upside. It's about how a front office thinks several moves ahead, uses calendar mechanics to their benefit, and turns what looks like a head-scratching pick into the foundation for landing one of the best defensive players in football.