2026 NFL Draft: Breaking Down Rams QB Ty Simpson (Alabama)
The Rams surprised a lot of people by using the 13th overall pick on Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson while squarely in the middle of a Super Bowl window.
They appear to be taking a page out of the Green Bay Packers’ playbook, setting themselves up for the future while still competing for a Lombardi.
I’ve got a lot of thoughts on this approach, but I’ll save that for another time. For now, let’s focus on what the Rams likely saw in Simpson.
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Attacking the Middle of the Field
This was probably the area of Simpson’s game that most attracted the Rams. Simpson was running an NFL-style offense at Alabama, and there were a ton of snaps where he had to deliver the ball over the middle at the intermediate level. Not only was he effective in doing so, but he actually seemed most comfortable navigating this area of the field:
Below, you can see an example of Simpson quickly getting through the front side of a play concept before hitting a back-side dig late from the pocket.
First, check out the play design. Simpson was reading right to left off of play-action:
After turning his back to the defense on the play-fake, he quickly eliminated his first two receivers:
He didn’t throw to his next receiver because he wasn’t looking back at him when Simpson was ready to deliver the ball:
So he moved on to the back side and found the dig:
Simpson was aware of the middle linebacker sitting inside, so he settled his receiver, firing an absolute dart into a tight window:
He put together several key elements of high-level quarterbacking on that one.
Simpson can also make any of those throws over the middle where firm touch is required. Those are the throws where the ball has to get over a linebacker with velocity but can’t be thrown so hard that it sails into the hands of a DB behind the receiver: