ESPN's Booger McFarland was not at all a fan of Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson getting picked so early.
Like many others, the analyst seems to believe the Los Angeles Rams simply chose to take him off the board too early with the No. 13 overall selection. If you ask Bama fans, this was a perfect landing spot for the signal-caller, but McFarland passionately would disagree with that.
"He showed high-level quarterback play, but the 15 starts concern me," McFarland said live on ESPN. "I don't think there's a track record for guys who started 15 games and then on top of that Mel (Kiper Jr.), how does this help the Rams this year? They were arguably the best team in football last year. Matthew Stafford is coming back. This does not help them win this season."
It is not an unpopular sentiment, either. Most analysts had him being drafted late in the first round, with a good deal of people predicting he would slide to the second round or maybe even later. That's not the case, as the Rams seem to believe he has much more to offer than most would.
Ty Simpson brings upside, but developmental skillset to the Los Angeles Rams
Simpson showed flashes at Alabama, but he did not exactly look like an early first-round selection. He finished out the 2025 season with a completion rate of 64.5%, passing for 3,567 yards with 28 touchdowns and five interceptions.
He finished out the final four games of his college career with a 57% completion rate, drawing concern over his inconsistencies as a passer. If you watched how that final season played out, his performances almost looked like a case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
From a stat line perspective, that doesn't look too shabby. But the film is questionable at times, and one of the biggest things that gets called into question is, as McFarland himself brought up, his pure and utter lack of experience.
Simpson appeared in a total of just 31games over a four-year college career that was spent entirely with the Alabama Crimson Tide. The 2025 season was by far the most loaded for him with his 15 starts. But, he only saw action in six contests for both the 2023 and 2024 seasons, respectively, and just four games in his freshman season of 2022.
It's hard to hold the latter against him because of where he was in his career at the time as a newcomer, but there's not a lot of proven tape put up over those first three seasons combined. Looking at his play style, he has rightfully earned some praise for his management of risk, solid footwork and overall lower body mechanics and his decisiveness. His accuracy is under question also, because receiver drops did not do him any favors.
But among his weaknesses are his experience, eye discipline and ability to deliver when under duress. It will be interesting to see how things play out for Simpson in the Rams quarterback room led by Matthew Stafford, and it's reasonable to expect that his addition and the remaining offseason could call into question quarterback Stetson Bennett's future in Los Angeles. Simpson will look to prove plenty of haters wrong, and we now know McFarland is on the list.
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