When the Los Angeles Rams selected Ty Simpson with the 13th pick in the 2026 NFL Draft, the reaction was mixed at best, and head coach Sean McVay looked unusually flat at his post-draft press conference.
Simpson himself said he had “really brief” contact with the team before the draft, limited to meeting a few scouts in Alabama. He even said draft night was the first time he’d ever spoken to Rams’ general manager Les Snead. But now the story has changed: the former Alabama quarterback claims he held a secret meeting with the team before the draft.
Ty Simpson’s “Secret” Pre-Draft Meetings With Sean McVay Are Raising More Questions Than Answers
Speaking on ESPN Radio with Ian Fitzsimmons, Simpson revealed that he and McVay had actually held a secret meeting before the draft at the team’s facility.
The two talked about football for hours. Simpson described it like “a kid in a candy store,” going back and forth with the coach he’d later call a “quarterback genius.”
So why the secrecy? Simpson explained it plainly. “I knew they were interested, but they wanted to make it private and didn’t want people to know that they were interested,” he said. “So, I had some secret meetings with Coach McVay. I just was trying to be on script.”
NFL insider Ian Rapoport shared a quote from that same interview: “We tried to keep this under wraps as long as we could.” He accompanied it with a detective emoji.
“We tried to keep this under wraps as long as we could.” 🧐 https://t.co/46QADWOJuc
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) April 28, 2026
Some analysts weren’t buying the explanation. One user cut straight to it: “I smell damage control.” It’s not hard to see why people felt that way. The timing raised eyebrows. A wave of new information dropped shortly after widespread criticism of the pick. Whether that’s a coincidence or a strategy, people noticed.
NFL YouTuber Jackson Didlake was even more blunt. Responding to a ProFootballTalk post about the secret meeting revelation, he simply wrote: “Yeah I’m sure pal.” No elaboration needed.
Not everyone was skeptical, though. Some appreciated that Simpson had kept quiet about the Rams’ interest throughout the process.
One commenter offered a more charitable read: “Very cool that he didn’t leak the info. Ended with him being in probably the most desirable landing spot for a young QB to come in and learn.”
That’s a fair point, as the Rams did what teams do. They hid their cards, and Simpson played along. That’s standard draft prep. Teams routinely go to great lengths to conceal interest in prospects they covet.
But something about this whole situation feels off. The optics are strange. McVay’s demeanor after the pick sparked immediate speculation that this was Snead’s decision, not his. Simpson’s initial comments suggested minimal contact with the franchise. And now we’re hearing about hours-long secret meetings.
All of those things can technically be true at once. Secret meetings still count as meetings. And staying tight-lipped during the pre-draft process is smart, not scandalous.
Still, the drip of new information landing right when public sentiment turned negative does make you wonder. Are the Rams correcting a false narrative? Or are they managing one?
The answer might take a few years to arrive. If Simpson develops into a franchise quarterback under McVay’s watch, none of this will matter. The secret meeting will just be a fun footnote.
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But if the pick flops, every awkward detail from draft weekend will be picked apart all over again.
According to PFSN’s CFB QB Impact Metric, Simpson posted an impact score of 85.4 last season, ranking 25th in the nation. Given his lack of production and college experience, questions are bound to be raised about his selection at 13th overall, and only time will tell whether the Rams were right.
