Back to LB? Giants reportedly plan to use Isaiah Simmons as a linebacker

Just because Isaiah Simmons no longer resides on the Arizona Cardinals’ roster, doesn’t mean his days of moving positions are a thing of the past.

Following Arizona’s Thursday morning dealing of the safety to the New York Giants for a 2024 seventh-round pick, Jordan Raanan, who covers the Giants for ESPN, said the plan for Simmons moving forward is to move him back to linebacker.

“As one NFL executive told me: ‘Perfect project for Wink (Giants defensive coordinator Don Martindale),'” he reported.

“We thought there was some upside there,” Giants head coach Brian Dabboll told reporters Thursday without giving too many specifics on where he might play. “We’ll put him, we’ll ask him to do quite a bit of things just to see what he takes to, but he’s a guy that’s athletic, explosive, has good size. I’ve seen him do multiple things. … Certainly happy to have him.”

Maybe the change of scenery will open up his mind to returning to the position, because in one of the last times he spoke with Arizona reporters, he made it clear his desire to move from linebacker to safety.

“That was one of the first things they asked me, ‘Where do you see yourself?’ I told them I didn’t want to play linebacker,” Simmons said on Aug. 7. “There’s just things in there that you get thousands and thousands of reps at this point that I never saw before and it was my first time doing it.

“I just felt more comfortable getting back to things that I have done in the past and just kind of ran off with that.”

That’s not to say, however, that Martindale doesn’t know what he’s doing, having had a hand in developing C.J. Mosley, Kayvon Thibodeaux and Dexter Lawrence.

One thing is for sure, it’ll be interesting to watch from afar.

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