The Los Angeles Rams must feel pretty good about the success of their monumental 2021 trade that swapped Jared Goff and a cache of picks for Matthew Stafford. The move resulted in a Super Bowl championship at the team’s home in SoFi Stadium.
Years later Stafford is finding new heights in his career. He just put a bow on his most productive season yet and earned the NFL’s Most Valuable Player honors.
Even with things going so well, the Rams understand quarterback is the most important position in football. Stafford’s career continuation is on a year-to-year basis. He could easily decide to call it quits after 2026. LA decided now is the time to prepare for the future.
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They drafted Ty Simpson with the thirteenth overall pick earlier this spring.
There is plenty of time to discern what Simpson brings to the table and whether he’s someone that the Rams can be trusted with the keys as soon as 2027. As training camp approaches, now seems like a good moment to ponder on Simpson’s NFL ceiling.
For as good as Stafford is, could Simpson one day surpass him?
Stafford is a QB of an era gone by
For most of Stafford’s NFL tenure, he was often the 8th to 12th best quarterback in the league. Many in front of him have hung up their cleats: Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Matt Ryan, Philip Rivers, Ben Roethlisberger, Eli Manning, Andrew Luck, and others.
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The league’s new elite quarterbacks are stylistically very different from those who have come before. There is a significant difference in the way they play the game from what makes Stafford successful. I’m thinking of Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow, Drake Maye, Caleb Williams, Jordan Love, and more. The NFL is in good hands with this emerging crop.
But modern professional football almost requires quarterbacks to be able to win with their legs. You can get by with a savvy pocket passer, although in short-yardage and goal line situations you may be leaving meat on the bone if your signal caller can’t pick it up himself. This alone is one of the biggest changes the Rams will see when they one day transition from Stafford to Simpson.
And certainly Stafford brings a headiness to his play that is unrivaled by the next generation. His no-look passes and ability to quickly progress through the defense gives Los Angeles a massive inherent advantage. There are tradeoffs for nearly any player teams decide to put under center.
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At least on the surface the Rams seem to understand where the quarterback position is headed. Simpson fits that bill from a stylistic standpoint.
How high is Simpson’s ceiling?
A common draft season knock against both Fernando Mendoza and Ty Simpson was that they are probably NFL starters but may be not better than mid-tier. Simpson has frequently been compared to Brock Purdy, a former seventh round pick and someone who may never become elite himself.
But Simpson has Sean McVay’s seal of approval. That is meaningful for nearly anyone on the offensive side of the ball. While seeing Simpson in such a favorable light does require some hand waving and looking past a small sample size, you can certainly see why the Rams felt he was a fit for their system and that he has the potential to grow into a difference maker.
One of the main concerns with Simpson is his frame. He stands 6-1 and weighed 211 lbs. at the NFL scouting combine. That weight is likely significantly heavier than where he played at last season while he was battling gastritis.
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For example, the below list of quarterbacks have a earned reputation for missing time. Being slight of frame is a real concern.
Josh Allen is pushing 240 pounds. Caleb Williams and Drake Maye are in the mid-220’s. Even 10 additional pounds may make a big difference in terms of sustaining hits over the course of a season.
With an opportunity to observe one of the most savvy passers in football, time to build out his physical frame, and mobility that we haven’t seen from a Rams quarterback in some time, could Ty Simpson one day surpass Matthew Stafford? He’s certainly closer to the modern mold of signal callers than the veteran can claim.
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