Isaiah Simmons, The Box Defender
OK, so let’s put aside the idea of Simmons as a position-less player for a second, and examine him as if he were a conventional 4-3 linebacker.
This is not how he was used very often at Clemson, but it’s how he is likely to spend at least some of the time in the NFL. Of course, as will any defender, one of the core building blocks of the position is the ability to tackle and while Simmons did sometimes take extremely aggressive angles that asked him to make more difficult tackles than was possibly necessary, it’s hard to argue that he didn’t consistently back this up:
While he will need to show that he can handle running backs running right at him rather than taking them down on the angle in space, from a technical point of view he is a very good tackler. Where he maybe might be more of a work in progress is his ability to work off blocks in the box. While he flashes some nice hand placement to manipulate leverage to get a line on the ball-carrier:
He is quite light for a conventional linebacker given his height, and in order to counter this he needs to maximize the impact of his long arms to keep blockers at bay and use leverage to hold his ground rather than having the power to stone offensive linesmen coming his way.
Again, this was not a way he was used a lot at Clemson, so there isn’t a ton of tape to go on, but he did look a little too easy to move in the run game:
And while the fact that he wasn’t asked to play in this way can explain why he might be half a step slow in this regard, his ability to process how his gap assignment changes with moving blockers is something that should at least cause some hesitation:
Simmons didn’t play a lot in the box, especially on run downs, and while this cannot be seen as a fault, it does leave a question mark about how he might fit in this regard in an NFL defense. and this again takes things back to the role of interviews, and how important it will be for teams that Simmons is able to continue to develop from a technical point of view, as a run defender in the box for a start. The other, somewhat less concrete cause for slight concern as a run defender, is that for a hybrid player needing to develop more as a run defender, he often looks somewhat passive in and around the box:
Too much shouldn’t be made of this, and I mention it here only to convey a general impression that, on tape, while Simmons will need to develop more as a run defender if he is going to play in the box in the NFL outside of obvious passing situations, his value is always going to be in his impact on the passing game.
Speaking of which…
Isaiah Simmons, The Coverage Phenom
Coverage has an awful lot to do with athleticism, especially in man coverage, and having spent a fair amount already discussing how remarkably able Simmons is in this regard, it is worth now taking a moment to look at some of the areas where he still needs to improve here. The most significant of these in terms of his absolute ceiling is that, while he flashes all the speed and movement skills needed to be an elite man coverage player, he does need to tighten up his footwork somewhat. Far too often, he allowed inferior players to get away from him, if only for a moment, due to ill-disciplined footwork that often saw him take unnecessary steps that put him at a disadvantage:
To this point, he has been able to get away with this because of his remarkable athleticism and the fact that any separation a receiver got was soon closed by his speed advantage. For a player whose ceiling usage is likely to involve him being used as a matchup counter the NFL’s better tight ends and running backs, he needs to show far more consistently disciplined footwork as he will find NFL players are far better at exploiting his sloppiness, and far harder to close down.
In zone, as great as his range is, he needs to show that he can also use that to the maximum impact, as there were a couple of times in zone where he probably should have picked up the receiver in his zone but instead allowed the reception:
One very valid argument is that because Clemson used him in so many ways, he was never given the time and coaching to fully develop his skill set in any one regard.
College teams only have so much time they can spend with players, and given how many different ways he was used at Clemson, the amount of coaching he received for any one role is likely to be much less than some of his compatriots. With that said, however, that doesn’t detract from the fact that he will need to develop these skills in order to make the most of his ability and whenever a prospect needs to gain additional skills upon entering the NFL, there is always the risk that they don’t.
On tape, Simmons’ talent is evident, and the idea of what he can become is going to be hugely appealing to NFL teams, but there are a number of areas where he needs to improve technically as well as needing the time to master the mental side of the various roles he will be asked to play in. Simmons’ ability to learn as well as his understanding of the structure of defenses is something that teams will have to determine for themselves, but if Simmons is to be compared to the best example of a hybrid defender from recent times – Derwin James – the comparison is a mixed one.
James was an extremely well-developed player whose slide in the draft can almost certainly be attributed to teams not being sure how to use him – and while Simmons has a ceiling that likely surpasses even James, he is not the technically polished player that James was coming out of FSU and his impact in the short term might well be limited by his need for technical improvement as well as the time needed to master the more complex NFL schemes for a range of different positions. Drafting Simmons high then could pay off – he has the upside to merit a selection inside the top ten, for sure – but there is enough work needed for him to reach that potential that taking him that high should be seen as a gamble.
For the Panthers, Phil Snow has shown an ability to use hybrid defenders well in the past – most recently, this past year in Baylor – and so the Panthers might well be the team best-suited to making the most of a hybrid defender like Simmons, even if how that transfers to the NFL scenario is yet to be seen. However, unless the Panthers look to trade down, their only chance of getting Simmons will be at 7, and as good as he can be, it seems difficult to see how he would be the best prospect on the board at that point, even if there is a chance that he can become the best player available.
Best Case NFL Comparison: Derwin James
