The Tennessee Titans and their fans aren’t the only ones who are expecting big things from defensive lineman Jeffery Simmons in his second season.
Hall of Fame talent evaluator and NFL.com analyst Gil Brandt named Simmons as one of his Year 2 breakout candidates at defensive line, ranking the Mississippi State product at No. 1.
Simmons was a top-10 prospect before suffering a torn ACL in pre-draft training, and he showed why in his first rookie action, logging four tackles and a sack against the Chargers in a disruptive Week 7 debut. In eight more appearances, he tallied just one more sack and 14 additional tackles. But he’s also dropped significant weight this offseason, saying he wasn’t comfortable playing at 320 pounds last season, and he appears to be in outstanding shape. Simmons is poised to validate the Titans’ faith that he can step up and anchor the defensive line in the wake of five-time Pro Bowler Jurrell Casey’s trade to the Broncos.
Despite missing the first six games of his rookie season while rehabbing from a torn ACL, Simmons still made a big impact upfront for the Titans by being a disruptive force, and he did so right away with one sack in his debut.
But Simmons wasn’t totally comfortable in his rookie campaign. Not only was he playing at a heavier weight than he would have liked, he was also forced to wear a knee brace that no doubt hindered him a bit.
Fast forward to 2020 and Simmons has shed the knee brace and looks to be in phenomenal shape, setting the stage for Big Jeff to really show what he can do.
Simmons will not only be tasked with taking the leap in Year 2, he’ll also be looking to take the torch upfront from Jurrell Casey, who was a stalwart for Tennessee on the defensive line for nearly a decade before getting traded to the Denver Broncos earlier this offseason.
