Simms: Rams taking Simpson was 'a head-scratcher'
Chris Simms joins Dan Patrick to share why Diego Pavia was not drafted, if the Rams made a big mistake taking Ty Simpson, how Jeremiyah Love fits in with the Cardinals, which New York team had the better draft and more.
Video Transcript
Let's bring in Chris Simms, Pro Football Talk Live co-host.
You can also listen to his podcast, Unbuttoned, former NFL and Texas quarterback.
Why wasn't Diego Pavia drafted?
well, there's a lot of reasons to that.
One, you know, smaller quarterback.
I think the league is a little down on smaller quarterbacks right now.
two, when he had to play within the pocket, it's underwhelming to watch him in those, those scenarios.
He's not a high-level thrower of the football.
You know, he plays a style and is most successful when it's backyard-type football, but yet he's not very fast either, and then he plays small.
And then also on top of that, Dan, nobody wants to bring in their practice squad third-string quarterback who likes to make headlines for the wrong reasons at times, and I think all of those, situations are why, you know, he wasn't drafted yes- or this weekend.
I know I spent a lot of time Thursday and Friday on this story, and that's Ty Simpson going to the Rams.
Yeah.
And I'm trying to understand the strategy of taking a guy for a team that might be the best team in football, with apologies to Seattle, but you're taking a guy who best case scenario doesn't help you this year and maybe not next year.
So why take him that high given that I had a couple of offensive weapons, Sadiq was there, Lemon there- Sure Davante Adams is 34.
Exactly.
So help me understand the, the philosophy there.
Well, I, I don't think I'm gonna because I, I can't understand it either.
I mean, I certainly wouldn't have done it.
That was not what I was for.
I mean, again, I Listen, you can still hear.
You hear it?
Those are the Seahawks and the 49ers.
They're still cheering that they- the, the Rams took Ty Simpson.
I mean, yes.
I mean, because the, you said it.
they're the second-best team in football last year.
By all due accounts, if they go to the Super Bowl, they're gonna beat the Patriots.
they're, they were a better football team, you know?
So yeah, you looked at that pick 13, and I know the whole league and the NFC West especially was like, "Oh my gosh, the Rams got pick 13?"
I think there were some thoughts there that they were like, "Oh, gosh, I'm scared they're gonna trade into the top 10 and really get some splash-type player to add to their, their awesome football team on top of that."
So yeah, I, I Listen, I know it was a, an extra pick they had from the Atlanta Falcons trade, and they probably feel like they're playing with house money.
But man, you're in a Super Bowl window right now.
Matthew Stafford's playing phenomenal football, like you said.
Ty Simpson's a guy, again, smaller, I don't think he was as, any- anybody viewed him as a top 20 pick in the NFL Draft, and the league is a little s- down on those type of guys like I'm telling you about, and he hasn't played a lot of football to where now he's gonna sit on the bench and not play football for a little bit while longer.
That's to me the part that doesn't quite make sense, and I'll throw this out there too, Dan.
I mean, for a guy like Matthew Stafford, this is only gonna motivate him to play one more year extra.
"Oh, y- you think you're gonna tell me when I'm gonna retire?"
And, "Oh, damn, you didn't wanna waste a, a pick like you said Makai Lemmon?"
I mean, Davante Adams is not what he used to be, and he's 34, and he gets injured, so yeah, that was not my favorite pick, and, s- certainly is still a head-scratcher to me and, and by all due accounts, Sean McVay's reaction on Thursday night as well.
I'm trying to understand the Cardinals' philosophy with Jeremiah Love that I get it.
Yeah.
You gotta have a face for the franchise.
McBride is great.
We're still waiting for Harrison to be something.
Exactly.
You don't have a quarterback.
he, he's too talented to pass up.
I just don't know if that's the right team for him at the right time.
and then you go out and you get Carson Beck later, who is probably gonna see the field.
aside from Mendoza, Carson Beck is probably the next quarterback who's gonna be playing this season.
It wouldn't, it wouldn't shock me.
You know, Jacoby Brissette, you know, I, I expect him to be there, be the quarterback.
I think Arizona went, like, the route of, like, "We're not gonna make this all about the quarterback.
Just because we need one doesn't mean we're just gonna pick one and one that we don't necessarily like high in the draft like a Ty Simpson."
I never got the sense they would do that.
Again, they were a team that was kind of burned by the smaller-type quarterback.
I worked in New England with Monte Ossenfort.
I mean, the f- the, the, the philosophical thought at the quarterback position in New England, and I believe Monte believes in that, is that bigger quarterbacks.
that, that's traditionally what they had.
I think that's what he believes in.
Now, where it's good, Dan, is this.
This is Mike LaFleur.
He's a run game expert, and he, he knows how to use the running back, being from Shanahan, being from McVay, his brother up in Green Bay trading for Josh Jacobs, adding him to the offense.
They're gonna know how to use him not only in the run game and the pass game, and then they got a decent O line.
They got something forming here.
So I think what they're kinda doing is just building the team, and then hopefully next year they can strike while the iron's hot and finally get their quarterback of the future.
But for now, that wasn't there, and they went with the best offensive player on the board and a guy that has a chance to be Marshall Faulk if they can support him the right way with the team around him.
Chris Simms, Pro Football Talk Live co-host and his podcast entitled Unbuttoned.
It's rare when we say this, but the Jets seemed- to have a good draft.
But-Who had a better draft, the Giants or the Jets?
Ooh, that, that I, I mean, they both, to me, were, are at the top, okay?
They're at the top.
Like, I, I if you gave me stars, and I'm gonna do this on my podcast a little bit later, I'm gonna tell you the New York Giants and the New York Jets were, two of the best drafts there is.
Now, let me just say this right off the bat, 'cause the Jets was phenomenal.
Three first round picks.
I liked them all.
I really And they're gonna help their football team, and it stays consistent with what the Jets have done all offseason, which was signing veteran players that can make them good right now, because if they're not good right now, their, their, their butts are hot on the hot seat there.
They gotta make it work, and I think the guys they drafted can help them out right away.
Now, the Giants, of course, I love that draft, and this is where people are missing out on this Arval Willis conversation, okay?
So Arval Willis, yes, he has a chance to be Micah Parsons, but as we know, Micah Parsons played a lot of middle linebacker his first year with the Dallas Cowboys.
I know everybody's looking at it right now going, "Wait, they have pass rushers."
I get it.
Okay.
Well, here's the first thing.
The best Everybody talks about Sonny Stiles, and I tried to emphasize this on my Chris Simms Unbuttoned podcast, the best middle linebacker in the draft was Arval Willis.
All right?
So as freaky as everybody told you about, Sonny Stiles, he was the second-best linebacker on his football team.
Arval Willis is the best middle linebacker to come out in football in quite some time.
So you have that right off the bat, and that's where I think some Giant fans are missing.
So he's there, he's starting.
He's gonna be phenomenal there.
And then they can slowly work him in.
Kayvon Thibodeaux has one year left playing there, so he'll be the third rotational guy.
It'll be Abdul Carter, it'll be Brian Burns, Arval Willis in the middle, Kayvon Thibodeaux subbing in for the guys on the edge.
Next year, Arval Willis will play a little bit more edge, and they'll continue to infuse that to where two or three years from now it'll be Arval Willis and Abdul Carter on the edge, and we'll see where Brian Burns is.
As you know, two or three years for a guy like that, it's a long time.
So I love the Giants draft, but I love the Jets too.
and I'd probably give the Giants the edge, honestly, Dan.
Yeah, I think the Jets did a great job in drafting for next year, that they didn't reach for anybody.
They- Exactly they're like- Right eh, we'll figure out the quarterbacking situation.
Let's just make the team better.
And I go back to Bill Cowher's quote when he was with me, last week in Pittsburgh.
He said, "When we were getting ready to draft Ben Roethlisberger, we had already made ourselves a really good team."
Right.
So the quarterback came into a good team instead of let's build around the quarterback and have him try to make Like Fernando Mendoza.
Yeah.
I mean, hopefully they're building the team, or it's a good enough team that he comes in, instead of saying, "Hey, you're the number one pick.
Go out there and be a savior."
Yeah, a- a- and that's the way it should be.
And see, that's the way I was trying to kind of explain to Arizona, and you, you said it a better way there.
I don't think They weren't gonna The Jets weren't gonna be, "Oh, we're gonna reach and take a quarterback we don't like just because everybody says we need a quarterback."
No, they're going, "Wait, we got Geno.
He Geno's damn good if you can help him out a little bit."
Same with the Cardinals and Jakobi Burchette.
Let's build the team, and then if Arch Manning's there next year, boom, he's ours, and he can come in and be really good right away 'cause we got the support around him.
And I You know, we've had too many times in history where you, you just said it.
Like, we get the quarterback and you go, "Okay, but the rest of the team stinks.
What the It doesn't matter if it's Superman or whoever, John Elway, they're not gonna be very good with this team."
And I think we've seen this.
Detroit.
Detroit took the let's build the team and we'll grow Jared Goff behind that.
The Seattle Seahawks, what did they do?
They It wasn't like, "Oh, Sam, save us, Sammy."
It was like, "All right, our team's good.
Let's bring in Sam.
He'll help us out."
All right?
The Philadelphia Eagles, they never made it like, "Oh, it's Jalen Hurts, and then we're gonna figure it out."
They were like, "Damn, our team's good, and now we got Jalen Hurts, and he'll fit into it."
So I think that's the right approach, and I think too many organizations do quarterback before the team, and you're seeing one here where it's team first, like you're pointing out.
And I keep mentioning this probably, ad nauseam, that is these are the kind of drafts that you look back in two or three years and you say, "How did that team get so good?"
It's because you're drafting players that aren't making headlines.
They're not, you know, sexy names.
Uh- Exactly you know, you're just Like, all of a sudden, you know, it's a Puka Nacua in the fifth round, and you're like, "Man, how Was he a first-round pick?"
Like, these are the things that I try to tell people.
You can win later with drafts like this.
Totally.
And- Totally y- you know, that, that's what I think the value of this is.
Like, like the Chiefs quietly went out and I think had a good draft.
They got defensive play- Like, they revamped their defense in one draft.
Now, you can say did they go up maybe too high to get, the defensive back, Mon- Monsieur Delane yeah.
Right.
Yeah.
But, you know, if I'm Steve Spagnuolo, I'm like, "Man, thank you.
Christmas."
Yeah.
Christmas in April- Sure here that we got.
So those are the little things that happen with some of these teams where you go quietly they tapped you on the shoulder and they go, "Uh, keep an eye on us this year or next year."
That's right.
That's right.
you, you build, you know I mean, you, you build teams really Again, the success rate of the second and third round picks is greater than the s- success rate of the first round picks.
And with your Chiefs thing, that was a calculated chance.
And Dan, I'll sit here and tell you, they were I don't I You, you gotta somebody's gonna have to prove me wrong.
I don't think they were trading up for Monsieur Delane.
They didn't think the Giants were gonna take Arval Willis, so they were going, "Oh my God, we're gonna get Arval Willis at number six.
The Giants aren't gonna do that.
They have enough pass rushers," right?
But yet they knew if the Giants took him, wait, there's another guy we really love there that we need.
So that's, that's smart team building, and they made a move at a calculated chance and risk there, right?
So but yeah, the success rate of the second and third round picks is greater than the first round picks.
We've seen the Rams with F them picks, but yet still- build their team with great third and fourth and fifth round picks, like to your point there.
And the other thing we're seeing, and you kinda hit on this just a little, the first round has become less about, oh, this guy is awesome at this one thing, but he, we got some other questions.
We're not sure.
We're seeing guys like, I will say, like, guys like Mekhi Lemon and Omar Cooper, I think 10 years ago, they're not first round picks.
They're not.
They're, they're not really explosive or sexy that way, but they're good.
They're, they make you feel warm and cozy 'cause they came from a good school with a good emblem- and they played in some big games.
And you just go, wait, the floor's high, the ceiling might not that be high, but there's not a bust factor.
And GMs have realized, like, if I draft bust, I get fired.
If I draft guys that nobody can call or bust, I might be able to stick around a little longer, and I think the NFL's taken that approach in the first round more here now.
What's next on the football schedule here?
Well, for me personally, I mean, I'm, I'm just happy I don't have to watch film and make lists and do, you know, rank this position, and watch the 27th ranked defensive tackle in the draft.
But, now I just get to sit back, enjoy the news, and, and kinda just react.
So it's just OTAs and mini camps from here now, Dan.
And Aaron Rodgers.
What's that?
And Aaron Rodgers.
Well, and Aaron Rodgers.
That, that, that'll, that's the story that never dies.
It, it just, it's, it's been going on for eight years now.
It never dies.
I've hit my life limit- limit with talking with Aaron Rodgers, all right?
Thank you, Chris.
All right, man.
Good seeing you, Dan.
Tell those jerks I said hi, all right?
Hey, jerks.
Chris says hi.
Chris Simms, Pro Football Talk Live co-host and his podcast, Unbuttoned.
