Where Does He Play?
Ten years ago, Simmons would likely have been dismissed somewhat as a tweener, not fitting neatly into any one box, but after the success of players like Derwin James and Tyrann Mathieu in recent years, there is more of a blueprint of how Simmons might be used. This is also supported somewhat by how he was used at Clemson, where he spent time doing a little bit of everything.
Sometimes he was asked to rush the passer, both around the edge:
And as a more conventional blitzing linebacker:
On the complete other end of the scale, he was also asked to play a somewhat conventional deep middle as a free safety:
Where he notoriously flashed the range and ball skills to cause offenses headaches:
And finally, as a spy to counter quarterbacks who pose a rushing threat:
As good as all this is, Simmons probably isn’t going to line up at edge rusher very often in the NFL and probably won’t generate sufficient value as a deep zone defender in most schemes for him to be considered as a pure safety. Simmons said at the Combine that his best position is as a weak-side linebacker, and that is probably true if he were only to be used in one way, but the reality of it is that he will likely be used in a range of different ways – less so than in college, but still more than the vast majority of NFL linebackers.
This probably won’t mean that he is moving around a ton from snap to snap, but rather that his usage will be different each week based on the opponent he faces and how his talents can be best used to counter the threat that offense poses. This will mean learning an often completely different gameplan each week, and so how he performs in interviews will be incredibly important as teams will need to trust that he is capable of essentially learning the playbook of multiple different positions simultaneously, and execute in real time without playing half a step behind as he tries to remember what it is he’s mean to be doing.
The other important thing to consider for any team looking to draft Simmons as this multi-tool defensive weapon is that athletic potential isn’t by itself enough to be a good NFL player, for Simmons to make the maximum impact he also needs to have the technique required for each of his different positions.
This means having the footwork in man of a cornerback, the gap discipline and hand usage against blockers of a linebacker and the processing in zone of a safety. So then, how does he stand in this regard, and what does he need to work on to make the most of his prodigious talent?
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