LOS ANGELES -- The Rams wanted to keep their interest in Ty Simpson close to the vest before the NFL draft, so the Alabama quarterback kept his meeting with coach Sean McVay "private," he said Monday in an interview with Ian Fitzsimmons on ESPN Radio's "Amber & Ian."
The Rams drafted Simpson, Matthew Stafford's likely successor, with the 13th pick Thursday night.
"We tried to keep this under wraps as long as we could," Simpson said in Monday's interview. "It was something to where I knew they were interested, but they wanted to make it private and didn't want people to know that they were interested.
"So, I had some secret meetings with Coach McVay, and I just was trying to be on script and do what everybody told me and not to tell anybody."
After he was drafted, Simpson downplayed his predraft interactions with the Rams.
"It was really brief, to be honest with you," he said Thursday night. "I met with some scouts in Alabama, and that was really it. They talked to my agent, but that really wasn't much."
In reality, Simpson said Monday, he and McVay had one meeting before the draft and "talked for hours and hours."
"And it was just football," Simpson said. "It was just straight football. And it was like a kid in a candy store. Me and him are sitting there, and we're just going back and forth. You can tell the obsession he has for the game, and you can tell the love he has for quarterback play.
"It's something that I appreciate, and it's something that I enjoy because I really enjoy playing the position and value the position. So, being with him and then getting to know him and then just seeing a little bit of how I would get coached if I was fortunate enough to go there was something that I couldn't have asked for a better situation."
Though McVay said he "couldn't be more excited about being able to add [Simpson]" to the roster, he wanted to make it clear that Stafford will be the Rams' quarterback for as long as he wants to play.
"Whenever that time comes for [Simpson] to get an opportunity to be Matthew's successor will be on Matthew's terms," McVay said Saturday night.