It was a surprise to many when the Rams selected quarterback Ty Simpson at No. 13 overall to be Matthew Stafford’s successor in this year’s draft.
But the organization has been clear that it’s still Stafford’s team until he decides to hang up his cleats.
Simpson has said publicly that Stafford has taken a “big brother” role in his development, complimenting the 2025 MVP for being willing to answer all of his questions.
In an interview with Chris Long’s Green Light podcast this week, Stafford was asked what he’d like Simpson to say about him years down the line.
“Hopefully, he comes away with a guy who treated him the right way, showed him what it was about, what it’s like to be a true professional, and also be yourself,” Stafford said. “I’m not some robot out there. Love playing the game — you see me mic’d up, I’m running around like crazy, doing all sorts of wild shit, and have fun with the game because it’s a kids’ game.
“But at the same time, hey, I’m here for him if he needs help. My No. 1 job — I’ve said this 100 times — is to get our team and myself as ready to play as possible. And if he gathers information and he learns from that along the way, I’m fired up for our team, because that’s going to make us better. And I’m fired up for him. But I’m here to encourage — like everybody on our team — encourage everybody to do their best, keep getting better, and find ways to improve. And, hopefully, he’s a guy that 15, 20 years down the road can look back and say, man, I really enjoyed my time with Matthew and learned a lot from him.”
Stafford is coming off arguably the best season in his career, tossing a league-leading 46 touchdowns en route to being named a first-team AP All-Pro for the first time. With Stafford at 38 years old, we’ll see how long he holds off Simpson’s ascension to QB-1.
Read the full article here
