The Los Angeles Rams made a big swing when they took Ty Simpson with the No. 13 overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft, and that decision already has people asking whether it was bold or reckless.
Former NFL safety TJ Ward didn’t hold back when he broke down the pick on the Safety First Show, arguing that Simpson has an enormous standard hanging over him from the jump. Ward’s point wasn’t just about Simpson’s ceiling in a vacuum. It was about the Rams’ current setup, with Matthew Stafford already in place as the starter and Stetson Bennett on the roster as the backup.
Ward’s frustration centered on the idea that Los Angeles used premium draft capital on a quarterback when it already had depth at the position. He questioned why the Rams would take Simpson that early instead of sticking with Bennett behind Stafford.
“If you watched that dude tape, it was like, oh yeah, I’m picking him 13th, top 20. You’re out of your d*** mind,” Ward said on the Safety First Show.
“And that’s just a fact. For the Rams to pick him at 13 when they already have a starting quarterback, already have a backup, who was on a quality Georgia team national championship, and looked better than Ty Simpson in college.
And you already got a guy like that on the roster, but you reached.
“This is why I see why the Rams trade all them d*** picks for players. It’s not a bad scheme if you’re going to draft like this.
It definitely works in your favor. You might as well get some guys that are proven in the NFL, trade those draft picks for those guys, because you can’t draft.
If this is your first-round draft pick in three years, two years, and you go get Ty Simpson, hey, he better be Tom Brady.”
That’s a brutal benchmark, even if Brady is the name Ward chose to use as the measuring stick. Brady, of course, was the 199th overall pick in the 2000 NFL Draft, not a first-rounder, and he went on to become the standard by which every quarterback gets judged after leading the New England Patriots to six Super Bowl titles and then adding another with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Still, the Rams clearly aren’t viewing Simpson as an immediate fix. Their plan is about the future, not the present. They believe Sean McVay can mold him into Stafford’s eventual replacement, which changes the conversation around the pick even if it doesn’t erase the pressure that comes with going No. 13 overall.
That’s the real test here: not whether Simpson becomes Brady, but whether he becomes the kind of long-term answer that makes the pick worth it. Ward is right that first-round quarterbacks get judged on a different scale.
But for Los Angeles, the bar is simpler. If McVay turns Simpson into a franchise quarterback who keeps the Rams in Super Bowl contention for the next decade, the gamble will look a lot smarter than it does right now.
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