When the Arizona Cardinals drafted Isaiah Simmons with the eighth overall pick of the draft last month, his versatility was universally applauded. He played so many snaps at different positions and played at a high level.
The Cardinals believe giving him one main positional focus will allow him to develop into a potentially limitless player.
One thing that impressed the team and the coaches was his mental acuity and ability to learn game plans for multiple positions.
“That was definitely a big part of the fascination with him, his ability to learn all those different positions and execute them in college at a high level.”
He played safety, cornerback, slot cornerback, linebacker and on the edge.
The Cardinals don’t necessarily want him to play multiple positions. They want to use him in a number of ways but put him at one position to learn well.
“Our thought process is if he is able to really focus on one position, having the flexibility to still move around but really focus on one, what does that look like,” Cardinals coach Kliff Kingsbury said in a video conference with the media this week. “The sky really be the limit and that’s why we’re so excited.”
They believe that giving him only one position will allow him to grow more as a player.
“His ability to play so many positions and not really having a chance focus on one, we just think the sky could be the limit for what he can be if we really lock him into one position for a majority of the time,” he said.
That could be critical to his performance as a rookie with an offseason that will have limited on-field reps because of the coronavirus pandemic.
It makes sense to have him learn just the linebacker concepts but then give him specific assignments from week to week. That way, he is in one set of positional meetings. His versatility allows him to do safety things or pass rusher things, but he will do them within the context of being an inside linebacker.
The Cardinals are not limiting his use. They just want to limit how many positions he has to know.
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Ep. 266
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Ep.265
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