When the Atlanta Falcons drafted Michael Penix Jr. with the eighth pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, the Falcons were looked at as crazy. They had just paid Kirk Cousins $180 million over four years in free agency, and overcomplicating the QB situation turned out to be Terry Fontenot's undoing in Atlanta.
However, the Los Angeles Rams just did the same thing, and they aren't getting the same flack. They drafted Ty Simpson with the 13th pick (that they got from the Falcons) in the 2026 NFL Draft, yet the national media is giving them grace the Falcons never got two years ago when they drafted Penix Jr.
In fact, you could argue that the extenuating circumstances in Los Angeles are worse because Matthew Stafford is the reigning MVP. But NFL broadcaster Louis Riddick said on ESPN's Get Up that the Rams finding their potential franchise QB when they didn't need one was the correct decision.
"The best time to get your franchise quarterback is when you don't need him," Riddick said... "Sean McVay just talked about the fact that they know that Matthew (Stafford) is year-to-year. The last thing they want to have happen is Matthew going 'You know what, 'I'm done', and then they have to go looking for a quarterback."
The Ty Simpson debate saw double standards from when the Falcons drafted Michael Penix Jr. resurface
The media is going to extreme lengths to defend the Rams for taking Simpson over a more instant-impact player like Makai Lemon or Kenyon Sadiq, but never did so when the best (and most feasible) player the Dirty Birds could've drafted with that eighth overall pick was Laiatu Latu or Rome Odunze.
The only reason the Rams are getting this treatment is because Super Bowls heal everything. People have blind faith in Sean McVay and Les Snead because of a Lombardi they won five years ago already, but McVay didn't look particularly enthused about the idea of drafting Simpson in the first place.
According to ESPN research, Simpson's 15 college starts are the fourth-fewest by a first-round QB across the last 25 years. Only Dwayne Haskins (14), Anthony Richardson (13), and Mitchell Trubisky (13) had less. At least Penix was a Heisman runner-up and had multiple seasons of quality production.
Meanwhile, Simpson is already 23 and has one season of college starting experience. I will admit that between the McVay system, the weapons, and sitting behind Stafford, the situation is perfect for him to thrive, but drafting an older QB prospect to sit Day 1 always kinda worries me, like it did with Penix despite the situation.
Riddick's rationale is that waiting until Stafford retires to find a quarterback is preventing them from turning into the Steelers, but the Falcons signed a 36-year-old Cousins in free agency. They went in not expecting him to complete the entire contract, yet they were eviscerated for their conclusion.
The fact of the matter is that the difference in reception the Rams versus the Falcons received for their polarizing QB picks exposed a double standard. You can't call one team geniuses for thinking towards the future and call the other foolish, especially when they conducted the same plan, so regardless of how you feel about Penix right now, Simpson's treatment confirms he deserved better.
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