Last night, the Tennessee Titans surprised its fan base by selecting former Mississippi State defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons. It’s a move that’s been met with skepticism, and a bit of head scratching. Namely, because of an incident in 2016 during which Simmons, who was in high school at the time, repeatedly struck a woman. Then, there’s the issue of the ACL tear during the draft process.
On the surface, it’s a long-term investment on a potentially elite impact player. So, it makes it difficult to understand the “why” behind this move. Especially when so much of the fan base seems to think defensive line wasn’t a need and there was offensive talent worth taking ahead of Simmons (or even Montez Sweat for that matter).
But generally, the questions are fair – this is a complicated situation.
At last night’s press conference, GM Jon Robinson and head coach Mike Vrabel fielded a barrage of questions about the incident and their evaluation of it. And, rightfully so – it was reprehensible. It was ugly, and a lot of organizations scratched Simmons from their draft board altogether. But, no one – Vrabel, Robinson, or Simmons himself for that matter – is hiding from it.
There’s two important distinctions to consider here. First, I look at Simmons’ age at the time of the incident. If you do something stupid in high school, yes – I’m going to judge that differently than I would if you were a grown man engaging in such behavior. That’s assuming you lead the straight and narrow from then on. An awful lot of folks at Mississippi State vouched for this kid. Robinson and Vrabel did their due diligence, and Vrabel admitted that this was something they truly struggled with. It took a lot of long conversations with Simmons and a myriad of individuals close to Simmons before Titans brass agreed to take a flier on the guy.
Second, Robinson and Vrabel don’t have a track record of picking poor character guys. Character is something that factors into their evaluation heavily, and they don’t pick bad apples, plain and simple.
So, while I’m certainly not happy about it, I’m more inclined to accept that this was a kid making a horrible mistake and not indicative of a pattern of troubling behavior. I’ll at least give him a chance, because I do believe that people deserve the chance to make up for their mistakes. And, Robinson and Vrabel have done nothing to cause doubt that they are good judges of character.
Now, the ACL thing….that’s different. That’s just a matter of how he heals. Sure, he could miss his entire rookie season. But, he could also be back in late October, just in time for a run at the playoffs. It all depends on how he heals and if he’s able to play just as well.
But, assuming there are no more skeletons in Simmons’ closet, and assuming that he’s the same player he was before the injury, then this is an absolute steal. We may not see it right away, but a couple years from now, we could be looking at a perennial Pro Bowler. The bottom line is that while it’s controversial and there are justified reasons to feel awkward about the selection, the Titans still got a top five talent at #19.
Stoney Keeley is the Editor in Chief of The SoBros Network. He is a strong supporter of Team GSD and #BeBetter. “Big Natural” covers the Tennessee Titans, Alabama Crimson Tide football, the WWE, and a whole wealth of nonsense. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley
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