How will Stafford react to Rams picking Simpson?

Mike Florio and Chris Simms discuss the Rams selecting Ty Simpson at No. 13 and how star quarterback Matthew Stafford might react to the "delicate" situation.

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There's a clip making the rounds of McVay when he was being interviewed during the draft coverage on Saturday talking about John Lynch's smirk when he talked about what the Rams did.

Yeah, I saw that.

He's like, "What, what, w- w- what was he smirking about?"

Yeah, he's smirking because you coulda had a premier player at number 13, and you took a guy who best case scenario is never gonna set foot on the field this year, unless that scenario is you're up 42 to 3 in the fourth quarter and it's time to get the kids some reps.

But this really could piss off Stafford.

They did it too well.

They sold it too well, to the point where it created a reaction and a blowback that forced them- Yeah to go back and do damage control that over-corrected.

And now the coup de grace, Ty Simpson saying, "Oh yeah, I had a secret meeting with Sean McVay and we talked ball for hours and hours."

That takes the whole situation And what's gonna happen when Matthew Stafford is available to reporters the next time?

Now, Stafford is not a guy who wears his heart on his sleeve.

He's not a guy who's gonna react the way that Aaron Rodgers did when the Packers drafted Jordan Love, and be openly angry and express dismay.

But the apples to apples here is you had an opportunity to make this team better, and you didn't take it.

What in the hell?

I don't care about my replacement, I care about having more help around me.

What could you have done with the 13th overall pick in the draft?

You got Aaron Donald with the 14th overall pick in 2014.

What could you have done with pick number 13 this year?

And what you did was you got a guy who isn't gonna play.

So we'll see.

And look, they're still trying to negotiate a contract with Matthew Stafford.

I don't rule out I wanna be careful here, because I don't want the jabroni ass aggregators to have a clip they can steal from our show and make a big deal about it by taking it out of context- and make it look like I'm reporting.

But we need to be fair about the universe of potential outcomes going forward.

What if Matthew Stafford just says, "Screw it, I retire"?

What if he just says that in the aftermath of this?

What if he decides, "You're not making me an offer that I like.

You know what?

I knew I said I was gonna play this year, I've changed my mind.

I'm just gonna retire."

I'm not saying he will, but I think the what if has to at least be in the conversation, that his potential reaction to the Rams drafting his replacement will be, "Go ahead and replace me now, then."

Yeah.

I, I, I, I hear I feel like, it, eh, they know Matthew Stafford enough, I think- I'm- I know, I know you're just throwing it out there.

I think it's a- I know, I know.

You're right.

But listen- You're, listen, you could- Why are they bending over backwards?

Why are they bending over backwards to do the Michael B. Jordan thing- No if they're not worried about how he's gonna respond?

I, you're, you're right about that.

And what he might do.

They knew he was obviously gonna be offended to some degree.

Eh, exactly right.

A- and I think there's also a part of messaging to your team to make sure they know Matthew Stafford's the guy, so the team doesn't look at it and go, "Wait, you know, wow, coach is really giddy about this pick.

Damn, Ty Simpson, holy crap.

Are we gonna like, change quarterbacks sooner rather than later?"

But yeah, it's a delicate situation, like you're talking about.

And again, I feel like this is more like Aaron Rodgers, Jordan Love, than Michael Penix, Kirk Cousins.

I feel like this is one where, yeah, now you're gonna motivate the player, and I think he's gonna try to stick it to the team a little bit and go like, "I'm gonna get out of here when I'm ready to get out of here."

So, we'll, we'll see.

But I would be disappointed if I was Matthew Stafford, just like Aaron Rodgers.

I mean, Aaron Rodgers, they drafted Jordan Love, and then the next year they went to the NFC Championship Game, right?

Then he won the MVP and they lost to the Bucs, right?

Isn't it, am, I've got that right back in my memory there?

it was.

Yeah, 2020.

Yeah.

Yeah, that was the- Right, right that was the game when- Yeah, they, the- when- Brady- Rodgers blamed Matt LaFleur for not going for it on fourth down.

And it's like, hey, if Rodgers hadn't- Yeah you know.

Maybe- Never mind.

I don't wanna get into Aaron Rodgers yeah, maybe ran or throw, we had that whole thing.

Brady threw the three picks in the late third quarter, fourth quarter, all that.

But no, the point being is, you know- But he was MVP that year he was the MVP.

He responded by winning the MVP two straight years.

He, right.

And he could also be like, "Damn, maybe we would've won that game if we had the number 24 pick that helped our football team that day, instead of on the bench."

I mean, that's what players think.

All right?

When it's over, and you lose that kind of game, those are the kind of things when the players are around mad and disgruntled and having a beer, and maybe talking shit about the organization and the coaches and what they did wrong and why they lost the game, they'd go, "Damn," you know, "I wish we had a pick number 13.

Maybe would've beat, you know, Seattle this year in the NFC Championship game if number 13 was a D-back or a, you know, a pass rusher," whatever.

You know my point there.

And, that, that's what people are gonna wonder if they don't get to the promised land this year.

I just think that we'd be foolish and naive to not watch what is and has been an evolving story.

And let's just go back to the beginning.

I'm gonna keep it simple.

I'm not gonna take up a lot of time here.

Number one, they surprise everyone by taking Ty Simpson.

Number two, Sean McVay is clearly agitated in the press conference after they picked him.

Number three, he was so agitated that it blew up his phone and he had to come out and fix it the next day.

Number four, it's now clear that this was all an effort to make sure Matthew Stafford isn't pissed off.

Number five, they went so far in doing that, Ty Simpson now came out and gave up- Yeah the fact that he was squirreled away in Sean McVay's office for hours and hours, where this was a plan and a plot that they were keeping to themselves, and everything is a lie and everything was orchestrated.

And now Matthew Stafford, what is he gonna do?

So when you look at the lengths to which they went to get to this point, because they're afraid of how Matthew's gonna respond now that he knows the truth-We get our popcorn, we sit back, and we wait to see how he's gonna respond.

That's why we can't rule out the possibility that he's gonna say, "I've made $400 million.

I've fangled, I'm out."

We can't rule that out.

Sorry, London.

We can't rule that out.

Sorry, Rome.

We also can't ru- Sorry, Naples.

Sorry, Naples.

So we also can't rule out the possibility And this is where it goes off the rails, but I'm gonna say it.

What if he asks to be traded to the Steelers and play for Mike McCarthy, and then Aaron Rodgers goes to the Rams?

Boom.

Wouldn't that be the ultimate ending?

Well- I mean, if this is Hollywood, if this is Hollywood, the great playwright David Mamet says, "The best endings are both surprising and inevitable."

And wouldn't that be both surprising and inevitable if the end result is Stafford gets traded to the last team that's looking for a starter, and Aaron Rodgers goes and plays with Sean McVay this year.

It would be a- I'm not- I know I'm just having fun.

It would be amazing, but yes.

It's more likely he'd retire- Right than do that.

I think so, yes.

'Cause there's no place else he can really go right now.

Yeah, yeah, and Pittsburgh- Except Minnesota is not the team you wanna go to.

There's no place else Stafford could really go.

Could you ima- I mean, but think about how crazy this is.

And the Rams get the benefit of the doubt because they've been good for the past decade.

Yeah.

It really is cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs that the reigning MVP has had his eventual replacement drafted in round one of the next draft.

That's never happened before.

Yeah.

No, it's, it is, it is, and then that's where I question it, it's where I don't agree with it.

I know he's a little up there in age, but as we know from modern-day quarterbacks, really in the stars, he's not really that up there.

Yeah, he's been beat up, but we saw last year, damn, he played, he played awesome.

You know, I thought by You know, he was the MVP by far.

I really did, and I think that a lot of the NFL did.

so it is, it's an odd situation, and we're, we're gonna be evaluating it all year because they are, they're one of the best teams in football.

And I think, again, that's why maybe you saw that smirk from John Lynch and other people out there 'cause they were damn glad that they didn't help that football team out right now more and making them more of a powerhouse in the NFL.

All right.

So you know, it's funny, and this is the value of having this 45-minute conversation and talking it through because last night when I wrote the item, copy-paste snarky comment at PFT about Ty Simpson finally telling the truth, it was just about, "All right, we got a story to get out.

Let's get it out.

Let's write it up.

Let's put a little, little snarky comment at the end, and then let's move on to the next thing."

It really takes time to discuss it and let it marinate and let it simmer, and just really take a step back and understand the broader implications here.

They were scared to death of pissing off Matthew Stafford to the point where Sean McVay overdid it, to the point where he had to put the toothpaste back in the toothpaste holder.

Get it right, you said bottle yesterday.

And that, 'cause Sh- Sherrine Williams years ago said, "Toothpaste in the toothpaste holder."

And now Ty Simpson has felt compelled to come out and accidentally tell the truth.

And now through it all, they're negotiating a contract with Sean McVay, and we wait to see what happens.

This is better than anything Hollywood's created.

All due respect to one battle after another, this is something I can't wait to see what the next scene is going to be

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