NFL scout gives confusing critique of Jeffery Simmons
Jeremy Fowler of ESPN publishes a series of articles every year ranking the top ten NFL players at every position according to league executives, scouts, and coaches. There are few people more qualified to judge a player's standing than the best football talent evaluators in the world. But every now and then, someone will have […]
Jeremy Fowler of ESPN publishes a series of articles every year ranking the top ten NFL players at every position according to league executives, scouts, and coaches.
There are few people more qualified to judge a player's standing than the best football talent evaluators in the world. But every now and then, someone will have a comment published in Fowler's article that is extremely controversial or doesn't make much sense. That was the case this year regarding Tennessee Titans defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons.
Simmons was ranked the third best defensive tackle in the league behind Aaron Donald of the LA Rams and Chris Jones of the Kansas City Chiefs. That's one spot lower than Simmons was ranked last offseason, but an overall accurate and deserved honor.
While Simmons was ranked as high as second by some, at least one voter had Simmons as low as sixth, and the reasoning for it is extremely confusing."'My only concern with him is durability,' said an NFC scout, citing Simmons' ACL injury coming out of Mississippi State in 2019," wrote Fowler in the article.
Yes, you're reading that right. An NFL scout for an NFC team moved Simmons down the list because of an ACL surgery from four years ago that has never given him issues as a pro. Since returning from his ACL surgery and making his NFL debut in October of 2019, Simmons has missed just four games. One of those was in 2020 when he was place on the COVID-19 list.
In fact, four months after returning to the field, Simmons was already puting his knee surgery in the rearview mirror saying he "didn't want to think about it at all" moving forward.
Injuries have never been a concern with Simmons and anyone suggesting that his durability or knee is a worry is foolish. Even last season when he was dealing with an ankle injury for majority of the year, Simmons played through it and battled his way to 7.5 sacks and phenomenal run defense.
I'm not going to argue second versus third place on the overall list, but at least make your argument make sense if you're going to disrespect one of the best interior defenders in the game.
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