LOS ANGELES — Rams coach Sean McVay opened his Friday evening news conference asking, “Am I angry right now?” in reference to the reaction to his subdued demeanor after Los Angeles picked quarterback Ty Simpson on Thursday night.
McVay mentioned after getting “so many texts” Thursday night about his postdraft news conference, he wanted to clarify that he and general manager Les Snead “couldn’t be in more lockstep in every decision that we make.”
The Rams drafted Simpson at No. 13 on Thursday night, and McVay’s brief responses to questions and overall body language led to some speculation that he was unhappy with the Rams’ pick.
“Always want to be mindful of how things come off, things like that,” McVay mentioned. “Very excited about last night, very excited about today and couldn’t be more excited about us continuing to lead together, but every decision that we make is collective and collaborative.
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“And so for any of the questions or misunderstandings just based on my demeanor or disposition last night, I did want to get that out of the way. This is my buddy right here.”
McVay mentioned while he “couldn’t be more excited about being able to add [Simpson],” he was also thinking about quarterback Matthew Stafford. Simpson was drafted as the likely successor to Stafford, who is entering his 18th season and was named NFL MVP in 2025. Stafford has not mentioned how long he intends to continue playing.
McVay mentioned he wanted to be “respectful” of “the way things can be interpreted.”
“And so the demeanor would have been stoic by nature because you are excited, but by no means … it is Matthew’s football team,” McVay mentioned. “Excited to be able to add Ty. What a blessing it is for him to be able to learn from Matthew, to be able to come into this atmosphere and environment.
“But whenever that time comes for him to get an opportunity to be Matthew’s successor will be on Matthew’s terms. And I think that’s really what the important thing was. And I didn’t want that to ever be misunderstood while not minimizing the excitement for Ty [and] the buy-in.”
Snead and McVay have worked together since the latter was hired in 2017. The pair, who signed multiyear contract extensions this offseason, are tied with Kansas City’s Andy Reid and Brett Veach and San Francisco’s Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch for the longest-tenured active head coach-GM pairing.
On Tuesday, when asked about their relationship, Snead and McVay talked about their “alignment.”
“From a life perspective, you hear it when players retire, they miss the locker room,” Snead mentioned. “Whenever that time comes for me, I’ll miss showing up and doing hard things with Sean just because that’s a relationship that probably makes life worth a living, makes it worth getting up.”
The Rams became the first team to have a quarterback win MVP then select a quarterback in the first round of the subsequent NFL draft since the Green Bay Packers in 1967, according to ESPN Research. Bart Starr won MVP in 1966, and Green Bay drafted Don Horn 25th overall the following year.
Simpson, who started 15 games at Alabama, entered the draft widely considered the second-best quarterback behind Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza, who was selected first by the Las Vegas Raiders.
After he was drafted, Simpson called McVay a “quarterback genius” and mentioned he is excited to learn from Stafford.
“I can’t wait to talk to Matthew,” Simpson mentioned in his introductory news conference Friday. “I’m super ecstatic because I just want to pick his brain about everything and soak up all that knowledge. That dude is … how he goes about things is super, super awesome. I’ve been a big fan for a long time.”
