Fresh off Matthew Stafford’s MVP season, the Rams are now projected to draft another QB in the first round of the 2026 NFL Draft.
capped off another strong season in 2025, finishing 12–5, the second-highest win total in the NFC, before narrowly falling in the NFC Championship Game to the eventual Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks.
More impressively, veteran quarterback Matthew Stafford delivered one of his best seasons, completing 65% of his passes for 4,707 yards, a career-high 46 touchdowns, and just eight interceptions. He led theStill, with Stafford having just turned 38, the 2026 NFL Draft is widely viewed as a logical window for Los Angeles to begin planning for the future, even with its franchise quarterback still operating at an elite level. What few anticipated, however, was the possibility of the Rams using a premium first-round pick on a quarterback in what is widely considered a shallow class. With the No. 13 overall pick, Brockermeyer projects Los Angeles to select Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson, a former five-star recruit who arrived in Tuscaloosa in 2022 and has just one full season of starting experience. “As great as Matthew Stafford is playing, you have to start thinking about a replacement, and Simpson is a no-brainer QB2 who could have teams like the Jets considering a trade up to snatch him,” Brockermeyer wrote. “He stands to benefit from a weak quarterback class and brings promising traits. “He has a strong arm, can attack all areas of the field with velocity and touch, processes quickly, anticipates well, and layers throws to every level. His lack of experience will be his biggest hurdle to overcome.”Stafford firmly reasserted himself as a franchise cornerstone last season, but he’s approaching 40, and the NFL is filled with cautionary tales of teams that waited too long to line up a successor. Those realities make drafting a high-upside quarterback while Stafford is still playing at an elite level a defensible strategy. As for Simpson, he stepped into the starting role at Alabama in 2025 after previously sitting behind Bryce Young and Jalen Milroe, and finished the season with 3,567 passing yards, 28 touchdowns, and just five interceptions while completing 64.5% of his passes. He isn’t a true dual-threat quarterback, but he has shown accuracy, pocket composure, and an NFL-caliber arm. At 6-foot-2 and 208 pounds, he fits the prototype physically, even if he brings just one year of starting experience to the table. Using a first-round pick on a position that isn’t viewed as an immediate need would, in all likelihood, invite scrutiny. But selecting a talent like Simpson would also give the Rams a young, controllable asset who can develop behind Stafford and eventually take over when the roster and salary cap timeline align. More importantly, it provides an internal succession plan instead of forcing the organization to scramble for answers further down the line.
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