It is draft week which means there will be a few final mock drafts. NBC Sports’ Peter King published his final mock draft and for Arizona Cardinals, there is a surprise.
The Los Angeles Chargers go with an offensive lineman instead of a quarterback or Clemson linebacker Isaiah Simmons and then the Carolina Panthers select Auburn defensive lineman Derrick Brown. Simmons falls in the Cardinals’ lap.
I’ve never before labeled a player “defensive player.” Simmons has played strong safety, cornerback, slot corner, inside linebacker and outside linebacker, and he’s likely going to be a hybrid safety/linebacker/edge player in the NFL. Could be an instinctive pass-rusher too, which the Cardinals lack in a big way; he had 23 pressures on 70 pass-rushes. Now, the Cards have other needs, and Simmons doesn’t have a singular position. But he was a great and instinctive college player.
I believe GM Steve Keim just might look at this pick and remember the 2007 draft. Keim, the director of college scouting in Arizona at the time, reportedly wanted Adrian Peterson when the Cards picked at number five in the first round. But the Arizona pick ended up being a tackle, Levi Brown, and Peterson came off the board two slots later, to Minnesota. Brown was an abject disaster with Arizona. Peterson is, well, the best back of the past 15 years. I’ve always seen Keim as a pick-the-best-player guy. And with the multiple defensive gifts of Simmons, he’d qualify as that if there at eight.
The Cardinals could go with Simmons, one of the two remaining top tackles in Jedrick Wills or Mekhi Becton, or they could go with a receiver.
Given the choices, Simmons would probably be the selection.
He would have an interesting role on the Cardinals defense. He has no real place in the starting lineup, except maybe at safety to start over Jalen Thompson. However, he still could get playing time and would actually be best suited that way, at least as a rookie because he could play some off the edge as a pass rusher. He could come in and play in the box, blitz from the inside or line up and cover. He could, in a part-time role, do what he did at Clemson while the Cardinals figure out the best way to utilize him on the field in 2021.
Selecting Simmons would mean having to address the offensive line and receiver later on in the draft without a second-round pick, but to get an impact player like Simmons would make it worth it.
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Ep. 264
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Ep. 263
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