LOS ANGELES — Rams coach Sean McVay’s subdued demeanor in his post-draft news conference after Los Angeles drafted quarterback Ty Simpson drew attention on Thursday night.
But the following morning in a radio interview with “The Sedano & Kap Morning Show,” Rams general manager Les Snead said he and McVay are “in lockstep” on decisions they make in the draft.
The Rams drafted Simpson with the No. 13 selection Thursday night.
“At the end of the day, Sean and I are going to always work together in these types of decisions,” Snead said Friday. “… There was a lot that was going on into maneuvering that draft. We’re in lockstep. We work together. We’re collaborative. It’s him and I partnering to try to do the best for the Rams.”
McVay’s brief responses to questions and overall body language led to some speculation that he was unhappy with the Rams’ pick.
But multiple team sources told ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler that they believe McVay might have felt the need to downplay his excitement in order to accentuate his confidence in starting quarterback Matthew Stafford.
One team source told Fowler that McVay is “excited for the pick,” while another source with direct knowledge of the situation emphasized that McVay was “absolutely” was on board with selecting Simpson, noting that Snead and McVay attack all decisions together
Snead and McVay have worked together since the latter was hired in 2017. The pair, who signed multi-year 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 said. “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.”
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 said how long he intends to continue playing.
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 to be the second-best quarterback behind Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza, who was selected first by the Las Vegas Raiders.
During the Thursday night news conference, McVay made it clear that the Rams are “Matthew’s team.” McVay said he had a conversation with Stafford before the pick was made but said he wanted to keep those conversations between the two.
When asked for Stafford’s reaction to the news, McVay said, “Oh, he was great.”
“He’s a stud,” McVay said. “I mean, he’s always first class in every sense of the word.”
Asked whether Simpson will back up Stafford next season, McVay said, “We’ll see.”
“He’s going to compete with Stetson [Bennett],” McVay said.
In the interview on Friday morning, Snead said the Rams have “always known that there will be a time when we need our future quarterback.”
“The way the stars aligned in this draft, that was the opportunity, we felt like, we should take,” Snead said. “And at the end of the day, too, going into this season with the possibility of Jimmy [Garoppolo] retiring, there was definitely an immediate need for a backup.”
