For the better part of the past few decades, it’s seemed as if no one has wanted to play for the Cleveland Browns. For better or worse, however, somebody has to. Just don’t ask Todd McShay about the possibility of his favorite prospect, Ty Simpson, having to be one of those poor, unfortunate souls.
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Despite some of the question marks surrounding the Alabama product, McShay is still willing to advocate for him ahead of the 2026 NFL Draft. Although now that he’s heard folks starting to ask, “Could he go as high as Cleveland, who’s sitting there at sixth?” he isn’t so sure that he wants to see a Simpson selection on night one.
“I hope, for Ty Simpson, he does not become a Cleveland Brown,” McShay told FanDuel TV’s Kay Adams. “They don’t have the protection, they don’t have the weapons.”
According to McShay, the most favorable outcome for Simpson, or any rookie quarterback for that matter, lies in becoming the heir to Matthew Stafford’s throne in Los Angeles. “I’d love to see him with the Rams. They pick at 13 with the first of their two picks,” he suggested.
Throw in the sheer amount of adversity that Simpson has also faced throughout the past calendar year, and it certainly seems as if a favorable landing spot, like L.A., could serve as a bit of reward for having survived the SEC’s roughest and toughest.
“It’s fascinating to see a guy who has gastritis, got beat up all year long, his number one wide receiver disappeared in Ryan Williams… It all fell apart at the end of the year, but through nine games, I will make this statement, and I will stand on it; Ty Simpson’s tape is better than Fernando Mendoza’s.”
While that last bit will likely prove to be McShay’s hottest take of the entire offseason, he could end up getting the proof that he’s been looking for should the Rams actually decide to draft Simpson. The Las Vegas Raiders, who have the number one overall pick and are all but guaranteed to spend it on Mendoza, are actually scheduled to host Los Angeles for a regular season outing at some point in 2026.
Much like Shedeur Sander’s Week 14 match-up against Cam Ward, a Mendoza-Simpson head-to-head battle would help to dismiss, or vindicate, a lot of the pre-draft claims that have been made by both fans and analysts alike. In other words, McShay may want to be careful about what he asks for here, because he might just get even more than he had initially thought to be possible.
