Top 10 interior defensive linemen in the 2019 NFL Draft

#3 Jeffery Simmons, Mississippi State

Simmons already flashed heavily as a freshman, yet he had two monster years after that

As quickly as Oliver moved into the national spotlight as a freshman, Simmons was in the news even earlier but for a less positive reason.

The former five-star recruit had a video reach the public in which he repeatedly punched a woman, but after paying her medical bills he was suspended for just one game and never had any other incidents during his collegiate career.

As far as his play on the field goes, Simmons already flashed heavily as a freshman, yet he had two monster years after that, recording 30 tackles for loss, seven sacks, three forced fumbles and five pass deflections, leading to consecutive first-team All-SEC mentions.

Simmons has an extremely powerful upper-body. He consistently gets under the pads of the guy lined up across from him and controls the mesh point.

The 6’4”, 300+ pound defensive lineman has the upper body strength to throw around big guys and frees himself from blockers consistently with a strong club to knock their arms away, in order to smash ball-carriers coming his way by grabbing cloth.

Simmons makes O-linemen chase him off stunts on the inside and often times they can’t get there quickly enough. He can also arm-over offensive linemen and flash in the backfield instantly and shuts down plenty of zone plays where locks out the blocker trying to put hands on him and hunt the back down the line.

31 of Simmons’ 35 solo tackles went for a defensive stop last season. Some teams ran traps to have tight-ends get a hit on his from the side because they knew he would kill centers and guards.

While being that disruptive in the run game, Simmons put up the second-highest pass-rush productivity by an interior D-linemen in 2017, only behind Michigan’s Maurice Hurst, according to Pro Football Focus and he recorded similar pressure numbers last season. The two-time All-SEC selection puts people on skates in the pass game and just ragdolls blockers into the quarterback’s lap.

That is even more dangerous when he mixes things up with a quick-swim or push-pull move to free himself. He forced a boatload of holding calls and double-teams while spending most of his snaps as an undersized shade-nose. Therefore his sack numbers don’t nearly reflect the type of impact he makes on pass plays. Moreover, Simmons has a feel for screen passes and stops his rush to find the recipient and track him down.

The monstrous D-lineman earned elite pass-rush and run-defense grade by PFF last season, showing his all-around contributions. The craziest part about his game, however, is the balance he displays with his pads twisted and him leaning so far into one direction.

You’d expect him to hit the ground all the time, but his jersey appears to be clean at the end of every game. Simmons completely dominated the LSU offensive line in and beat the hell out of everybody on the Kentucky O-line last year.

Unlike most projected first-round picks who mail it in or don’t even play their bowl game, Simmons left it all on the field in the Outback Bowl versus Iowa, coming up with a tackle for a four-yard loss on the first defensive snap and ending that initial drive with a sack. That’s why it sucks so much that he had to tear his ACL during workouts and will lose a bunch of money because of it.

Even though Simmons was already a dominant player in college, he needs to avoid letting his pads rise and play with more extension in the run game, in order to give opposing linemen less of an area to attack.

Yet, my big concern with Simmons is his tackling radius and ability to change directions. You see too many quick running backs elude him and quarterbacks get flushed but not chased down by him.

I have no doubt that he can be a disruptive 3-tech at the next level, but he needs to do a better job finishing plays overall. There is not much of a closing burst and he kind of disappeared versus Georgia last year.

Regardless, Simmons is a badass player. While I don’t think he is nearly where he is capable of being at yet, you just feel like he has the upper hand in terms of physical tools against anybody and he has already shown the ability to be a game-changer.

When he combines that jump off the snap and his unbelievable power, he can just blow up anything going on in the backfield. It will be interesting to see how far he falls after that injury, but purely based off tape he is a top ten prospect.