This time, Sean McVay greeted the room with a grin.
“Do you think I look angry right now?” the Rams’ head coach quipped to reporters on Friday night, sharing a laugh as he kicked off his press conference during the second day of the 2026 NFL Draft.
The previous day, McVay had appeared noticeably displeased after the Rams made the surprising decision to select Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson with the 13th overall pick. Simpson is expected to spend most of his time on the bench this season, serving as a backup to veteran quarterback Matthew Stafford.
Addressing the media, McVay acknowledged, “I understand my demeanor last night,” but assured that his relationship with general manager Les Snead remains strong, stating they “couldn’t be more in sync” regarding their draft choices.
“We’re really excited about this,” McVay expressed. “It’s important to be aware of how things come across, and I’m very enthusiastic about both last night’s and today’s events. Les and I are thrilled to continue leading together, and every decision we make is a joint and collaborative effort.”
“That was never my intended way to come off, but sometimes I can be a little grumpy”
McVay learned he that he went viral due to the influx of texts he received after his presser Thursday, even joking with one reporter how they had tweeted about his reaction.
The normally jovial coach instead offered some short responses to reporters, and didn’t spend much time focusing on what they liked about their potential quarterback of the franchise.
Some speculated if McVay would have preferred a player to immediately help a Rams team that fell one game short of the Super Bowl instead of planning for the futre.
“There were a lot of players that we liked but when you do look at it, I think the thing you liked about the body of work — let’s make one thing clear, this is Matthew’s team,” McVay said Thursday night.
“You get a chance to address the backup quarterback, we’ve got Stetson (Bennett), we’ve talked about the importance of Jimmy (Garoppolo), so to add somebody you can evaluate a body of work where he was asked to play the position, and a lot of things that do translate in terms of concepts, reading with his feet … We’ll be excited to get to work with him.”
McVay explained Friday that his “grumpy” demeanor stemmed from outside factors, but added that though he’s excited about Simpson, he wanted to be respectful to Stafford.
Drafting a star quarterback’s replacement can always be tricky, as shown with the situations the Packers have faced over the years when they picked Aaron Rodgers with Brett Favre under contract and later when they took Jordan Love with Rodgers still playing at an MVP level.
McVay noted that it’s important to be mindful of how “things can be interpreted.”
Stafford has contemplated retirement before, but he’s already committed to returning in 2026 for the final year of his contract after winning his first MVP this past season.
“The demeanor would have been stoic by nature because you are excited, but by no means — it is Matthew’s football team,” McVay said. “Excited to be able to add Ty. What a blessing it is for him to be able to learn from Matthew, to be able to come into this atmosphere and environment.
“But whenever that time comes for him to get an opportunity to be Matthew’s successor, will be on Matthew’s terms. And I think that’s really what the important thing was. I didn’t want that to ever be misunderstood, while not minimizing the excitement for Ty, the buy-in.”
