The California number that rang at 6:20 p.m. the night before had turned a kid from Tennessee into property of the Los Angeles Rams. First round. Thirteenth pick.

A redneck in Los Angeles, by his own admission."I slept on the plane for like two hours," Simpson said, his voice carrying the rasp of a man hopped up on adrenaline like a case of Monsters. "But I was super fired up. I was like, man, I get to talk to LA media.

I'm blessed to be here."Blessed. The word he keeps coming back to. The word that anchored him through three years on the Alabama bench, through the Rose Bowl disaster, through the doubt that clings to a quarterback with only 15 college starts like a second skin.SoFi Stadium rose out of the Inglewood flatland like a spaceship that landed wrong.

Simpson had been here before. He remembered it differently."We did a walkthrough in SoFi, and it was raining, too," Simpson said. "I was like, man, this is really weird.

Why am I feeling rain, and it's in Cali, and it's like a dome? That was the last thing I ever thought about SoFi. Ironically enough, it's going to be my home stadium."Irony is the backbone of this story.

The same building where he completed 11 of 24 passes for 98 yards and an interception against Indiana, where Alabama's season died in the College Football Playoff, now houses his locker. The same tunnel where he told a friend, "I've never felt more alone," now leads to his workplace.He lost everything here once. Now he's being asked to win everything here someday."I guess like a redneck in Los Angeles, California," he said.

"We'll see how that goes."Nick Saban taught him something that stuck deeper than any playbook. Expectations are anchors. They drag you down before you ever learn to swim."I learned from Coach Saban that if you have expectations, you're always bound to fail," Simpson said.

"If I come in here and say, well, I want to win rookie of the year. Well, Matthew Stafford just won the MVP. How's that going to be?

That's going to be a fail."So he arrived with no expectations. Only process. Only the next meeting, the next rep, the next day of getting better.

He didn't come to Los Angeles to become something. He came to Los Angeles to become."My plan is to just get better each day," Simpson said. "Today starts my NFL career, and tomorrow will be the second day.

I just want to get better each and every day so eventually I have a long career like Matthew."Sean McVay's offense is not foreign to him. It's familiar like running into an old friend at a new job.Ryan Grubb's system at Alabama demanded detail. Footwork.

Steps. Play-action fakes that look exactly like run plays. Under-center drops. Manipulating defenses with your eyes, your shoulders, your feet.

McVay's system asks the same questions."It starts with the line of scrimmage," Simpson said. "You can tell Matthew is in the huddle, taking control. He's going up to the line, making sure we're in the right formation, right checks.

We're under center, we're going seven-step drops, play action. The unique ways to get to different routes. Puka Nacua inserting and running across.

We're in 13 personnel running boots. Matthew's footwork of manipulating the defense. Everything is just so detail-oriented."Detail-oriented––the phrase that separates backup quarterbacks from starters in McVay's world.

Simpson watched Stafford on tape the way a thief studies a vault. He saw the footwork. He saw the control. He saw a man who doesn't flinch."Matthew Stafford throws the ball with conviction," Simpson said.

"Doesn't care what happens. He might throw a pick on the drive before. He's coming back and throwing the same type ball.

That dude is an assassin."Stafford didn't call first. Kelly Stafford did. She found Simpson on Instagram, welcomed him to Los Angeles, told him to hit her up if his family ever needed anything.

The reigning MVP's wife broke the ice before the reigning MVP said a word."I have not talked to Matthew yet," Simpson said. "But Kelly has texted me. I can't wait to talk to Matthew.

I'm super ecstatic because I just want to pick his brain about everything, soak up all that knowledge."Soak. The verb of a man who knows he's not ready but refuses to stay that way. Simpson compared his situation to his apprenticeship in Alabama.

He sat behind Bryce Young. He sat behind Jalen Milroe. He learned by watching, by waiting, by wondering when his time would come."The years that I sat were just as probably more important than the years that I played," Simpson said.

"I had to learn how to practice. I had to learn how to study when I wasn't playing because I didn't know whe