Josh Simmons will be a steal. Joe DeLeone and Ryan Roberts break down the 2025 NFL Draft prospect from Ohio State football in their Josh Simmons scouting report
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00:00Josh Simmons is the most athletic offensive tackle prospect in the 2025 NFL Draft, but
00:05here's why he won't be the first selected.
00:11Josh Simmons is the most athletic offensive tackle in the 2025 NFL Draft, but Ryan, why
00:17won't he be the first offensive lineman selected?
00:21I mean, unfortunately, it's the patella injury that had cost him the tail end of the Ohio
00:25State season, or I guess the majority of the back end of the Ohio State season.
00:30He suffered against Oregon, and then obviously he hasn't been able to participate in any
00:34of the pre-draft conversations.
00:35So there's a lot of archaic scouts, Joe, as you know, that want to see that 40 time.
00:40They want to see those testing numbers, a 10-yard split for an offensive lineman.
00:44Josh Simmons wasn't able to participate in any of those things.
00:46So he is going to ultimately be one of the biggest value picks, I think, in the 2025
00:51NFL Draft.
00:52I don't think he'll go in the first round at some point, but unfortunately, the injury
00:55I do think is going to cause him to go behind a couple of other talented offensive linemen
01:00in this class.
01:02Removing the injury because that's part of the conversation.
01:05Other guys that are going to be deemed ready to play right away are getting prioritized,
01:09whether that's Will Campbell, whether it's Armond Membaugh.
01:12Simmons, I think at the end of the first round, is going to be one of the best value picks.
01:17This year, I don't think anyone put out better offensive tackle tape than Josh Simmons.
01:22I think that that has been so forgotten because he only played a very short portion of the
01:27beginning of the season for Ohio State.
01:29He has some of the best fluid movements I've seen for a tackle in my time scouting.
01:35I love his feet.
01:37I love the way that he mirrors.
01:38He is impossible to get by because he transitions and is able to slide back and forth so, so
01:45easily.
01:46I mean, it was a really interesting just jump that he made this year because he played for
01:51Ohio State, obviously, in 2023 after transferring over from San Diego State.
01:55He was solid in 2023, right?
01:58He wasn't a bad player by any stretch.
02:00I think he had a preseason fourth round grade on him, so I liked a lot of the athletic gifts
02:03that he brought to the table.
02:05But the things that you wanted to see take a jump and that he did take a jump on was
02:08one, I think the game slowed down because he's a really athletic kid.
02:12But I think the other thing, Joe, is that we saw an improved power profile for him this
02:15past year as well.
02:16I think being with Ohio State for multiple years and having that strength and conditioning
02:20program, I think that that really upped his game from his time at San Diego State.
02:24So we're talking now a young man that I think if he didn't get injured, would have had a
02:28chance to be a top 10 NFL draft pick in 2025 and to be the first offensive lineman just
02:33off the board.
02:35Like you said, you're getting a value and you're getting that value because this kid,
02:38I believe, is the best blindside protector potentially to come out in this draft.
02:43For so many players that we're debating on if they're a guard or a tackle, I don't have
02:47any questions based upon the size, length, athleticism perspective that Josh Simmons
02:52can stick at left tackle.
02:54Just to identify some weak points, he's still an improving player.
02:58The injury is always going to get brought up first when you've got a lower body injury
03:02for an offensive lineman.
03:04How soon is he going to be ready to go?
03:06Is this going to be something that maybe lingers?
03:09Offensive linemen with lower body injuries are always worrying.
03:13Other than that, though, he still needs to, I think, work on his hand placement.
03:17I think that there are plenty of times on reps where his lower body's great.
03:21He's sliding.
03:22He's really sunk down into his base really, really well, but he's grabbing guys on the
03:27outside of their shoulder pads.
03:29We just need a little bit better consistency with that technique.
03:32Yeah, I think the outside hand placement was one thing that I had noted.
03:35I agree with you 100% there.
03:36I also think just the timing of his punch is a little bit inconsistent.
03:39It wasn't as bad in 2024 as it was the previous year.
03:44I still think that it took a step forward.
03:47Those things can always be improved.
03:48We're talking about punch timing and location.
03:50I also think the other thing, Joe, is although I thought he played was awesome the beginning
03:55of this year, we didn't get to see him against the best of the best of the schedule.
03:59He only played for part of the Oregon game.
04:01We didn't see him, obviously, in that matchup with Abdul Carter that he would have had a
04:05couple weeks after that.
04:07I still would have loved to see a little bit more of a sample size against some of the
04:10best rushers on his schedule.
04:12There is going to be a little bit of question of, hey, he had a great beginning of the year,
04:16but when he started getting to the dog days and he had to go against James Pierce Jr.
04:20and Abdul Carter and Notre Dame and those types of schools, would he have still looked
04:24quite as good as he did early on in the season?
04:27We need to see that question on the table, but I do think that that is remedied by the
04:31fact that if we're projecting forward, he has great athletic traits that would be able
04:36to ascend to that spot, but that still is a little bit of a question until it is not
04:39a question anymore.
04:41Touching on his background as a recruit, back in the 2021 class, he originally played for
04:47San Diego State in his first year as a starter.
04:49He was tremendous for the Aztecs, which warranted an opportunity for him to hop in the portal
04:54and transfer to Ohio State, was very highly coveted that year in the portal.
04:59His composite ranking per 247 sports, he was the 342nd ranked recruit nationally, the 25th
05:07ranked interior offensive lineman, interestingly enough, and there was the 30th ranked recruit
05:12in the state of California.
05:13One would assume that USC and UCLA were probably kicking themselves that they missed out on
05:20this guy.
05:21Well, it's a really weird background because like you say, he's listed as an interior offensive
05:25lineman.
05:26I saw the comp that 247 had on him was Brandon Brooks, who was a former interior offensive
05:30lineman, obviously for the Philadelphia Eagles, right?
05:32He was a really good guard in his NFL career.
05:35So projections inside for whatever reason, don't know if maybe it was a little bit heavier
05:39coming out of high school.
05:40I'm not really sure, but he also had a extensive offer list and, and when we say offer lists,
05:46it doesn't always mean that a guy is a take at every school, right?
05:49Like some schools just throw out offers, but then they're not committable offers ultimately.
05:54But he had USC, he had Washington, he had Penn state, he had Oregon, he had Georgia,
06:00he had Oklahoma, he had Nebraska, Michigan, Michigan state, Miami, Duke, Arkansas.
06:05I mean, there was a lot of options on the table for Josh Simmons.
06:10He obviously ended up to stay home in the state of California and play at San Diego
06:15state.
06:16So I'm a little bit interested in, I wish I would've been able to talk about this at
06:18the combine, but like, why ultimately did you choose to stay home and go to San Diego
06:23state when you had some very big offers that were ultimately on the table, but it was obviously
06:28a big victory at the time for San Diego state.
06:30And luckily for him that he found his way to Ohio state, because I think that that transfer
06:33opportunity really took his game to the next level before his final two seasons are pro
06:39cop for him.
06:40We're going with Charles cross the former Mississippi state offensive lineman.
06:43That was the ninth overall pick to the Seattle Seahawks.
06:48Not that long ago in the 2022 NFL draft, he's been a quality starter.
06:51The rest of that offensive line has been a bit of a mess.
06:54So it's kind of, he gets dragged down and dragged into that quality of that offensive
06:58line play.
06:59But when he tested at the combine, he was a freakish athlete.
07:02And I think that we would have gotten similar numbers if Josh Simmons was available to participate
07:07in his, uh, in his combine workout.
07:09Well, in his last two years at Mississippi state, I think it's very similar to what we
07:14saw with Josh Simmons.
07:15We talked about it.
07:16He Charles cross was a really good pass protector who needed to get physically stronger.
07:21Like that was one thing that we needed to see him at Mississippi state.
07:25Right now, Josh Simmons was a little bit of a lighter player.
07:29His previous, his first year, I should say at Ohio state.
07:32But then we saw him take a jump from a just power profile perspective.
07:36And now we're talking about an all around left tackle on the NFL level.
07:39Similarly to what we saw from Charles, Charles cross, excuse me, developing into one of the
07:44best young blindside protectors on the national football league.
07:47Folks, comment below.
07:49What team do you want to see Josh Simmons play for hit that like button and subscribe.
07:52We'll talk to you later.