Rams GM reveals truth behind why Ty Simpson said he never met with Sean McVay before draft originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

The Los Angeles Rams made the most shocking pick of the 2026 NFL Draft when they selected Ty Simpson with the No. 13 overall pick in the first round on Thursday night.

Taking the Alabama quarterback, when players like Kenyon Sadiq and Makai Lemon were on the board, was a true shocker for the entire NFL. And when Simpson said he never met with Sean McVay before the draft, the pick looked so much worse.

However, on The Pat McAfee Show, Rams general manager Les Snead revealed why Simpson said he didn't meet with McVay and the Rams: he was told to keep their pre-draft meeting a secret, and held to the script all the way through the post-draft process.

"At the end of the day, here's where it went awry... we do like to emphasize, do keep these private meetings between us, right for that gamesmanship. We like for other teams not to know we're interested," Snead said. "So we emphasized, 'keep it quiet.' I feel really bad for Ty; he stayed on script."

Snead and the Rams had Simpson keep their meeting before the NFL Draft quiet so as not to alert other teams about their potential plans in the NFL Draft.

If a team knew the Rams wanted Simpson, some club might've taken a bold leap in front of the Rams inside the top-12 picks to get Simpson before the Rams.

And even if the Rams trade up to stop a team from making such a maneuver, they would be losing out on draft capital they otherwise would've been able to use.

More: Puka Nacua, Byron Young, other 2023 draft picks expected to be extended by Rams

So, at the end of the day, Snead reveals that the Rams did actually meet with Simpson before the draft, with both Snead and McVay in attendance. But they told him to keep it quiet, and Simpson held true even after he was drafted.

It was hard to believe the Rams would make such a bold decision without at least meeting with Simpson before the draft, so this news from Snead does at least dispel one of the worries about this selection.

However, this pick was still one of the more baffling moves of the entire draft. In a win-now window, taking a backup QB at 13th overall is a very questionable choice.

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