Rams QB Matthew Stafford Busy Coaching Flag Football Amid Ty Simpson Drama
The Los Angeles Rams became the talk of the NFL when they selected Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson with the 13th overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft on Thursday night.
Simpson would have been a divisive pick for any team that selected him in the first round. NFL analysts were split on whether he’s a first-round talent after he only started one season at Alabama and struggled to stay healthy last season.
But Simpson’s landing in Los Angeles stirred up a unique drama, given that the Rams have reigning NFL MVP quarterback Matthew Stafford, 38, as QB1 until he decides to hang it up. Ian Rapoport reported that the team is “close on a contract extension” with Stafford, which would give him the runway to play “more than this season.”
Rams head coach Sean McVay cleared the air about his uncharacteristic demeanor after the Rams drafted Simpson, which was broadly interpreted as McVay being disappointed with spending such a high draft pick on a backup quarterback within the Rams’ “win-now,” Super Bowl window.
“I couldn’t be more excited about being able to add [Simpson], but also understanding how much I love Matthew Stafford - how respectful you want to always be to just the way things can be interpreted,” he said.
Stafford doesn’t appear to be stressing about it.
Kelly Stafford, Matthew’s wife since 2015, posted a series of photos and videos showing Stafford coaching their daughters’ flag football team on Saturday.
The first video shows Stafford leading the young girls in stretching drills. Another video shows the team huddling around Stafford as he diagrams a defensive scheme on a tablet:
Kelly and Matthew share four daughters, nine-year-old twins Chandler and Sawyer, seven-year-old Hunter, and five-year-old Tyler.
It’s unclear how many of Stafford’s daughters are on this flag football team, or how many flag football teams Stafford coaches, because Kelly posted videos of Chandler and Tyler highlights and separately wrote that they’d had four flag football games.
Meanwhile, Simpson shared during his Rams introductory press conference on Friday that Kelly Stafford had reached out to him on Instagram, but he hadn’t yet talked to his new QB mentor.
“I can’t wait to talk to Matthew,” Simpson said. “I’m super ecstatic because I just want to pick his brain about everything.”
Stafford confirmed his decision to return to the Rams for the 2026 season while accepting his MVP award in February.
While surrounded by his four daughters on stage, Stafford said, “You’re unbelievable cheerleaders for me. I appreciate it. I am so happy to have you at the games on the sideline with me, and I can’t wait for you to cheer me on next year.”
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This story was originally published April 25, 2026 at 9:29 PM.