It looks like the mess the Rams have been trying to clean up for the last week since drafting Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson with the No. 13 pick.

The Rams were one game from reaching the Super Bowl last season, and they held their highest draft pick since picking No. 1 in 2016. Yet they used it on a developmental QB who wasn’t viewed by most teams as a first-round pick and likely won’t play for a year, maybe more.

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Stafford, who threw 46 touchdowns against eight interceptions and set a career high with a 109.2 passer rating, is not showing signs of slowing down. The Rams considered trading for A.J. Brown this offseason, and could have had all but two wide receivers with the 13th pick (only Carnell Tate and Jordyn Tyson were off the board).

“There is no denying that (Simpson) is a good fit in Sean McVay’s offense, but this is easily the gutsiest pick of the first round,” wrote Fox Sports draft analyst Rob Rang. “I can’t help but wonder if the Rams, presumably Super Bowl contenders in 2026, will later wish they’d selected a player likelier to make an immediate impact.”

One person who might agree is McVay, who was the talk of the first round for his grouchy demeanor at the Rams’ press conference. General manager Les Snead did most of the talking, and the usually energetic McVay only grumbled short answers.

“Let’s make one thing clear — this is Matthew’s team,” McVay said on draft night.

New England fans saw this awkward dynamic unfold in 2014 when the Patriots drafted Jimmy Garoppolo in the second round. Tom Brady was almost 37 and hadn’t won a Super Bowl in nine years, and Bill Belichick didn’t sugarcoat why he felt the need to draft a quarterback.

“We know what Tom’s age and contract situation is,” Belichick said at the time. “I think you’re better off being early than late at that position.”

The draft pick and comments infuriated Brady, who channeled his rage into his training and played nine more seasons, winning four Super Bowls (one with the Buccaneers).

While Belichick put Brady on notice, McVay took the opposite approach, explaining that his dour demeanor toward Simpson was out of respect to Stafford, who can keep his job as long as he wants.

“Whenever that time comes for [Simpson] to get an opportunity to be Matthew’s successor will be on Matthew’s terms,” McVay said. “I didn’t want that to ever be misunderstood while not minimizing the excitement for Ty and the buy-in.”

Stafford hasn’t made any public comments since the draft, though Simpson said Stafford’s wife reached out on social media. But McVay’s sour mood last Thursday was at least partly related to how Stafford would react to the news. Stafford is a free agent for the second straight year, and last year’s negotiation was messy, with Stafford flirting with the Raiders. This year, the negotiations have been smoother, McVay said, and he’s worried that drafting Simpson could throw a wrench into the negotiations. If Stafford is anything like Brady, he’s none too happy with the Rams’ draft choice.

Leading up to the draft, the Rams certainly didn’t act like a team ready to make a seismic pick. Simpson said on draft night that he barely had any contact with the Rams, and had never met McVay before getting drafted. McVay said in an interview in late March that he hadn’t done much work on Simpson.

The Rams have sent an all-out media blitz to change the negative narratives and present a united front. A day after the first round, McVay joked about his grumpy mood and insisted he and Snead “couldn’t be any more lockstep in every decision that we make.”

This past week, McVay made an appearance with Fox Sports’ Colin Cowherd, while Snead did interviews with ESPN’s Pat McAfee, NFL Network’s Rich Eisen, and Nick Wright’s show on FS1.

They provided answers for everything. The Rams actually did have a “secret meeting” with Simpson before the draft, and told him to keep it quiet. Simpson actually did talk football with McVay for hours. There was a rival NFC team that was going to snag Simpson if the Rams didn’t. And when Simpson told the media they had barely met, he didn’t realize it was OK to tell the truth at that point.

“Hey, Ty stayed on script,” Snead said.

Stafford also “couldn’t have been more of a stud with the way he handled it,” McVay said.

Shakespeare authored a famous line in “Hamlet” for this type of aggressive posturing: “The lady doth protest too much, methinks.”

Drafting Simpson is only the beginning of the quandary facing the Rams. Now they have to manage the fragile dynamic between a legendary quarterback and the youngster drafted to replace him, and possibly between a GM who is thinking about the future and a head coach who is thinking about 2026.

“If [Stafford] told me he could play for five more years it’s a different approach we’re taking. He doesn’t owe that to us, he’s earned the right to be year to year,” McVay said. “Ty will have an opportunity to be his successor when Matthew determines and decides that, based on whenever he wants to ride off into the sunset.”

Aaron Rodgers’s first season with the Steelers ended with a wild-card playoff loss to the Texans.Gene J. Puskar/Associated Press

RODGERS REDUX?

Steelers use tender on free agent QB

Speaking of veteran quarterbacks who may have gotten upset at their team this past week, it will be interesting to hear what Aaron Rodgers eventually has to say about the Steelers applying the little-used unrestricted free agent tender on him, which guarantees him a salary 10 percent greater than last year’s (about $15 million) should he re-sign with the Steelers.

Steelers owner Art Rooney downplayed the move as merely procedural. The window for compensatory draft picks has expired, but the UFA tender extends it to July 22 for the Steelers to receive a compensatory pick should Rodgers sign elsewhere.

“It was just something we had an opportunity to protect if needed,” Rooney told NFL Network. “Not a real big deal, but just something that if, in the unlikely event he goes somewhere else, we are eligible for a comp pick in that situation.”

Except the UFA tender does a lot more than help the Steelers get a draft pick back. While Rodgers is free to sign with any team until July 22, after that date the Steelers will exclusively control his rights, and another team would have to trade for Rodgers. Plus, if Rodgers isn’t signed by the end of Week 10, his season will be over and he cannot sign with any team.

Essentially, the Steelers have prevented Rodgers from pulling a Philip Rivers — waiting out the season at home and joining a playoff-contending team during the stretch run. It also artificially limits Rodgers’s compensation to $15 million when he could probably demand much more.

Rooney and new coach Mike McCarthy have said they have been in contact with Rodgers throughout the offseason and expect him to sign soon.

“Even though I thought it probably would have been concluded by now, I think we will come to a conclusion here in the next few weeks,” Rooney said.

But using the UFA tender implies that they don’t really know what Rodgers plans to do, and carries the risk of upsetting Rodgers, who rarely is afraid to share his opinions.

Rumors persist that the Eagles will trade wide receiver A.J. Brown to the Patriots.Terrance Williams/Associated Press

ETC.

Items remain on offseason docket

Now that free agency and the draft are mostly complete, a look at the items of business ahead for the NFL:

▪ The Eagles trading Brown after June 1, likely to the Patriots. Eagles GM Howie Roseman seems determined to get a first-round pick for the 28-year-old receiver. Will he be willing to settle for one in 2027 or 2028? Brown’s age, knee troubles, and lack of trading partners outside of the Patriots could limit the Eagles’ return.

▪ The Colts also need to trade fourth-year quarterback Anthony Richardson. Several teams could stand to take a flier on the former No. 4 overall pick, but his guaranteed salary of $5.3 million is prohibitive.

▪ The Vikings have launched their search for a new general manager. Rob Brzezinski, whose background is in salary cap management, held the interim title through the draft.

▪ Keep an eye on Myles Garrett and Maxx Crosby on the trade front, though there doesn’t appear to be anything imminent, and Crosby’s knee may prevent a trade from taking place. Garrett will probably want a new contract matching or exceeding Will Anderson’s $50 million per year, too.

▪ Baker Mayfield is entering the final year of his contract and is in line for a raise from the $28 million he is set to make. “All of our plans revolve around Baker,” Buccaneers GM Jason Licht said last week on Tampa radio. “That’s something that we’ll get to at some point.”

▪ Free agents no longer count toward the compensatory pick formula, meaning more veterans will sign contracts this spring, likely before mandatory minicamps in June. The Ravens this past week signed defensive tackle Calais Campbell, who will be 40 in September.

▪ The NFL schedule will be released in two weeks, likely between May 12-14. The Patriots are in play for the Kickoff Game in Seattle, the Munich game against the Lions, and a whole bunch of national TV games.

▪ Lots of churn. The Dolphins and Falcons were among the teams to already shake up their front office and scouting departments now that the draft is complete. And rookies coming in usually means veterans going out, with the Titans releasing six players Thursday.

A little bit of insight into the Patriots’ draft picks:

▪ A rival GM said he “love[s]” the Patriots’ second- and third-round picks, outside linebacker Gabe Jacas and tight end Eli Raridon, comparing them to Buccaneers pass rusher Ya-Ya Diaby and former Ravens tight end (now with the Chargers) Charlie Kolar. The GM believes sixth-round offensive tackle Dametrious Crownover is an intriguing developmental prospect and seventh-round linebacker Quintayvious Hutchins from Boston College “a great special teamer.”

▪ A rival special teams coordinator echoed the GM’s sentiments about Hutchins, and added that seventh-round running back Jam Miller should also be a great core special teamer.

“He’s better on special teams than running back,” the coach said.

▪ Joe Kim, a martial arts expert who was the Patriots’ pass rush coach from 2019-24, worked with Jacas last year at the University of Illinois (the connection is Bret Bielema, the Illini’s head coach who worked for the Patriots in 2018-19).

“Gabe is a true Patriot-type football player — smart, tough, dependable,” said Kim, who just joined Matt Patricia’s defensive staff at Ohio State. “Gabe’s work ethic is outstanding. I am an early-morning workout guy, and when I get off the bike at 5:45 a.m. and walked to my office, Gabe was always watching film. He came back every afternoon to review his one-on-one rushes from practice and dive into my thoughts on the opponent. He will be an impact player for the Patriots from the first practice of rookie minicamp. Mike [Vrabel] and his staff got a gem.”

A recent trend in NFL Draft analysis is the concept of the “consensus board,” where people compile all of the various draft projections for players to create one overarching draft board. Ravens GM Eric DeCosta told the team website that while the boards can be useful, it doesn’t account for the fact that teams often have inside information the draftniks don’t, such as injury history and off-field troubles.

“The last couple of years, we’ve had some players that were sort of outlier players — we might like them more than the consensus boards, so they might show up for us as first- or second-round players in our sequence, but on consensus boards they maybe show up in fourth or fifth rounds,” DeCosta said. “It tells me that there are players that teams like that the consensus boards haven’t heard about, valued properly, or latched onto, for whatever reason. Usually the players get picked closer to where we have them ranked instead of where they are on the consensus boards.”

Broncos quarterback Bo Nix had another clean-up procedure on his broken ankle.Bart Young/Associated Press

Sean Payton and the Broncos have acted a little funny about Bo Nix’s fractured ankle that cost him the AFC Championship game, and sure enough, NFL Network reported this past week that Nix recently had a second clean-up procedure that will have him limited or out for most of the offseason program. Payton joked to Nix that he wouldn’t have drafted him had he known Nix’s full injury history with his ankle, but now Payton probably isn’t laughing … Next year’s NFL Draft will be on The Mall in Washington, D.C., and Minnesota and Cincinnati are reportedly the favorites for 2028 and ′29. Commissioner Roger Goodell also attended the Browns’ stadium groundbreaking ceremony this past week and said Cleveland is owed another shot at the draft after its event in 2021 was significantly affected by the pandemic. Goodell also mentioned the possibility of a Cleveland Super Bowl in the new domed stadium set to open in 2029, but, please, Roger, no one wants to be in Cleveland in February. The area doesn’t have enough hotel rooms, either … TV ratings for the NFL Draft dropped to an average of 6.6 million over the three days, down from 7.7 million last year. The first round remains popular, but with NFL Combine ratings also sagging, the league may have to reimagine some of its draft coverage … Taken with the 57th pick, new Bears center Logan Jones earned a lifetime supply of ketchup from the Kraft Heinz Company … Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia became the first Heisman Trophy runner-up to go undrafted since Iowa’s Brad Banks in 2003. Pavia accepted a tryout invitation to the Ravens minicamp, and signed thereafter … Giants kicker Younghoe Koe produced the blooper of the 2025 season when he stubbed the ground on his field goal attempt against the Patriots. He also potentially saved a man’s life. Mark Toothaker, whose horse, Further Ado, ran in Saturday’s Kentucky Derby, laughed so hard at the blooper that it triggered a seizure. A subsequent CT scan revealed a tennis-ball-sized tumor on the left side of his brain, which was benign and removed. “I wholeheartedly believe I was in the right spot at the right time, and he was the trigger for that happening,” Toothaker told the Associated Press. “It was a miracle.”

Ben Volin can be reached at ben.volin@globe.com.