NFL
How Phil Savage Helped Sway Sean McVay Toward Ty Simpson Gamble
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2026 NFL Draft - Round One by Lauren Leigh Bacho | Getty Images
The NFL is still abuzz about the Rams shocking selection of quarterback Ty Simpson in the first round late last month, something the team did a tremendous job of keeping under wraps.
Head coach Sean McVay, a quarterback guru, acted as if he was not even familiar with the prospect during some media appearances ahead of the draft, though he and general manager Les Snead were clearly growing increasingly comfortable with the Alabama product as a potential heir to MVP quarterback Matthew Stafford.
The Rams also made a very late addition to their scouting and personnel staff ahead of the draft, adding former NFL general manager Phil Savage, most recently with the Jets as their interim GM in 2024, in late March.
Savage came over as a personnel consultant to help the team prepare for a draft in which it was selecting much higher than it had in years (13th overall), and that addition, for as overlooked as it was, may have helped push the decision to make this controversial pick over the top.
Why Would Savage Fancy Simpson?
“Think about it, all the buzz about Simpson through the combine was all Arizona or the Jets,” said one NFL personnel executive.
“Phil was just in New York, he knows people there and he loved Simpson. He is still wired into Alabama, he has as much information on those players as anybody. And then all of a sudden he gets hired by the Rams a month before the draft and they end up taking Simpson?”
McVay has final say on all matters regarding the Rams football operations, and much was made of his bizarre initial reaction to drafting Simpson at the press conference, but he was always comfortable with he pick, according to team and league sources.
But the presence of Savage, who is from Alabama and was a member of the school’s broadcast team for years and who used to run the Senior Bowl, held in Alabama, is a development that very well would have served to make them even more comfortable with the player and anything they might have wanted to know about him.
La Canfora has covered over 20 Super Bowls and League Meetings and NFL drafts, building a wide network of sources throughout all aspects of the game. He was an award winning print journalist as well, working at The Detroit Free Press and The Baltimore Sun prior to his first stint at The Washington Post. He has covered sporting events around the world, including two Winter Olympics and all of the 2006 World Cup. He attended his first NFL game in 1978, and would soon kindle what has become a lifelong love and appreciation of the sport. La Canfora is also a professional handicapper, specializing in the NFL, creating a daily sports wagering game show - "Wanna Bet?" He also hosts nationally broadcast NFL radio shows in the US, as well as a daily sports radio show in his hometown of Baltimore, Maryland.