Report: Potential 1st-round pick Jeffery Simmons to visit Cardinals
Apr 11, 2019, 11:53 AM
Mississippi State defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons will visit the Arizona Cardinals at some point after meeting with several other teams, reports NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.
Simmons was in Indianapolis to visit with the Colts but will also head to the Miami Dolphins’ facilities before landing in Arizona.
He also said on his Instagram account that he’d made a visit to the Green Bay Packers.
Simmons tore his ACL in February but is still viewed as a first-round pick. ESPN currently has him ranked 17th on its best available list, and considering teams are only allowed to host 30 prospects, that group of teams he’s visiting with could be telling.
Green Bay owns the No. 12 pick and 30th pick, while Miami holds the No. 13 pick. The Colts sit at 26th overall.
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Arizona has the first overall pick and the first selection in the second round (33rd overall), meaning GM Steve Keim could very well believe Simmons might fall out of the first round.
But of course, the Cardinals’ inquiry could also lead us down the road to believe they are doing due diligence in case they traded out of the first slot and landed a draft pick in the middle or backend of the first round.
Rapoport said that Simmons on Wednesday went through a re-check for teams to better understand his injury and recovery.
He didn’t go through workouts at the draft combine but measures in at 6-foot-4 and 301 pounds. As a junior at Mississippi State in 2018, he made 38 tackles, 18 for loss, and added two sacks and four passes defensed.
Though he had no off-the-field issues in college, Simmons was arrested as a high school player. He did not contest a 2016 charge of simple assault after a video of him allegedly punching a woman was released.
