Much has been made of Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay’s muted reaction to the team’s decision to pick quarterback Ty Simpson 13th overall. There is a widespread belief, however, that McVay was fully behind the pick.
“All indications to me were they were in lockstep,” a source told ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler of McVay and GM Les Snead.
Some around the league believe McVay’s muted reaction was his way of projecting confidence in veteran quarterback Matthew Stafford. The Rams had also been careful not to telegraph their intentions during the pre-draft process, fearing that interest in Simpson would increase if word got out that McVay was interested in him.
Ultimately, it is not a huge surprise that McVay at least signed off on the pick. He and Snead are known to work closely together, and it seems highly unlikely that the team would invest a top-15 pick in a quarterback without at least some level of buy-in from the head coach.
This will not necessarily quiet the whispers that McVay would have wanted to draft someone that would offer more immediate upside with the Rams in Super Bowl contention. Perhaps this is all a ploy, but if it is, McVay’s acting is so convincing that it resulted in one of the most awkward post-pick press conferences in recent memory.
