Justin Simmons Visiting Saints
 

After 153 days of toiling in free agency, Justin Simmons' market is beginning to heat up.

The former Denver Broncos' Pro Bowl safety, released on March 7 in a cost-cutting move, is scheduled to work out for the New Orleans Saints on Wednesday, according to longtime beat reporter Nick Underhill.

The motive behind the visit appears to be more than due diligence.

"If he's coming here it's a serious possibility [he signs with New Orleans]," Underhill wrote on X.

Set to turn 31 in November, Simmons has been the victim of a wonky NFL safety landscape, with no known tryouts since his departure from Denver. This, despite four second-team All-Pro nods, two Pro Bowl selections, and the most interceptions (30) of any defensive back since 2016.

But that's finally changing.

In addition to New Orleans, Simmons reportedly is drawing interest from the Indianapolis Colts. Per Destin Adams of A to Z Sports, the sides held "very fruitful exploratory discussions" over the last week, though "no deal is imminent at this time."

The Tennessee Titans, Baltimore Ravens, and Philadelphia Eagles are also among potential suitors connected to Simmons in recent months.

"The expectation was that some Justin Simmons movement would be happening this week and here’s some …," NFL Network's James Palmer posted on X, confirming Underhill's scoop.

Source - https://www.si.com/nfl/broncos/news/...ee-agent-visit

Re: Justin Simmons Visiting Saints
 

I love Howden but if you can get a vet like Simmons, who has always produced, for the back end of your defense, you have to make it happen. The more playmakers the better.

Re: Justin Simmons Visiting Saints
 

This here.

Re: Justin Simmons Visiting Saints
 

And then there's this ...

Re: Justin Simmons Visiting Saints
 

Elite secondary vibes.

Re: Justin Simmons Visiting Saints
 

Frfr…

Re: Justin Simmons Visiting Saints
 

Would you rather:

Abram, Howden, Will Harris and Roderic Teamer

or

Justin Simmons for 1-2 years?

Re: Justin Simmons Visiting Saints
 

He's better than Jason David or Dave Waymer.

Re: Justin Simmons Visiting Saints
 

Re: Justin Simmons Visiting Saints
 

Beginning to sound like a done deal. Terms would have had to have been determined already. The "visit" has got to be the required physical to formalize the contract.

Re: Justin Simmons Visiting Saints
 

Two elite safeties will be nice.

Re: Justin Simmons Visiting Saints
 

I'm old. What does that mean? Enlighten me. ;)

Re: Justin Simmons Visiting Saints
 

I'll Take Justin Simmons for a $1000, Alex. Woo Hoo! Ding Ding. We have a winner! :banana:

Re: Justin Simmons Visiting Saints
 

for real for real

And my butt is older than you. ;)

Re: Justin Simmons Visiting Saints
 

For real, for real.

Re: Justin Simmons Visiting Saints
 

Brag all you want. I've got dirt that calls me sir!:doh:

Re: Justin Simmons Visiting Saints
 

Can he play Left Tackle?

How many championships were the Broncos able to win the past 2 years pairing Simmons elite defensive contributions paired with an overpriced declining veteran QB on offense? I think Simmons could give Carr the same number of wins he brought Wilson.

Marcus Maye had a higher PFF score than Justin Simmons in 2022. The Saints won 7 games.

Re: Justin Simmons Visiting Saints
 

Some further analysis:

https://www.pff.com/news/nfl-highest...023-nfl-season

If the Saints added Justin Simmons, they would have the 3rd best safety in the NFC South behind the top ranked safeties in the league the Bucs Antoine Winfield and the Falcons Jessie Bates. That 3rd best safety in the NFC South would be Tyrann Mathieu, who they already have, the #10 safety in the league per pff. Xavier Woods of the Panthers would be close at #12 in the league. Where would Justin Simmons fall? He would upgrade the Saints incredibly from Jordan Howden's 67.0 pff score to his own 67.9 pff score, almost a full 1 point increase. And Simmons is only 8 years older than Howden, so whats really important is the 0.9 increase now, because 24yo standout rookies never improve more than 0.9 points their second year.

But whats more important is the amazing culture we could build by throwing a standout rookie who earned a starting gig under the bus in favor of an aging name guy who analytics say isn't meaningfully better. All our young players will have an incredible incentive to work hard if they know we will always be looking for a Drew Bledsoe to replace the Tom Brady they hope to become.

Of course Simmons is a ball hawk, and has averaged 4-5 INT's per season over his career. With Simmons, we could have a chance to lead the NFL in INTs. Last years NFL leader in INTS (breaking tie with least passing attempts faced) was the 2023 Chicago Bears and we know that made them contenders.

Re: Justin Simmons Visiting Saints
 

Chicago was tied with SF with 22 interceptions. SF was definitely a contender. Baltimore was next. Contender. Buffalo, Cleveland, and Cincy. All contenders. Most of the teams in the top 10 of picks were in the playoffs. It never hurts to bring in someone who can increase big plays, aka turnovers.

Re: Justin Simmons Visiting Saints
 

Believe it or not these players actually want to win. That's why they so commonly lobby to bring in any player who they feel will make the team better. Knocking a second year player down a rung on the depth chart would only have a negative affect on a team that had a crippled culture to begin with.

Speaking of lobbying, looks like Mathieu is taking an active role in recruiting Simmons.

Re: Justin Simmons Visiting Saints
 

.... we will see! Observations to be factual, truthful, and accurate. Can't Wait :beatnik:

Re: Justin Simmons Visiting Saints
 

Matthieu and Simmons are still in their prime, Howden and the rest of the developmental players on the practice squad are waiting for the news, filing out the back end of the practice with the of prospect filing out the rest of the hopefuls will have room for growth

Re: Justin Simmons Visiting Saints
 

Not sure this means anything, but it's info.

Re: Justin Simmons Visiting Saints
 

The Saints record the past 3 years in a very weak division does not indicate a thriving culture. The sub .350 career winning percentage of the Saints current head coach does not indicate he has a history of building strong cultures or improving the cultures he inherits.

I think you are wrong about the lobbying by players. First of all, an NFL roster has 53 players, so it 2-3 players on a team tweet in favor of an acquisition it does not mean all players want it. The culture is such that any player tweeting in favor of a potential acquisition has little to lose, if we get outbid or decide not to pull the trigger, nobody will question that player. But if a player tweets 'don't sign DeShaun Watson, he's overrated, rusty, injury prone, and a predator' thats going to get very awkward if the team does sign him and he is a new teammate. Also, a player suggesting the Saints should not be interested in signing a player they are bringing in for tryouts could be seen as questioning the boss who brought them in for tryouts, and being defiant. So players speaking out in favor of signing a given player does not mean the players are all for it because they want to win. It means some players, maybe even a minority of players, are for it, for any number of reasons. And maybe even more players are against it, but its not worth the risk for them to say so.

Now, why could a player want another player to sign? To win? Sure thats one reason but there are many other possible reasons. They could have the same agent and be doing what their agent says. They could be friends from past teams or hit it off at the senior bowl or whatever. A veteran like Mathieu could believe they will outrun father time, and that belief could lead to a bias that believing a fellow 30-something safety will do the same, and thus they could believe that player is a great value because they start with a biased premise. They could dislike the player currently at the top of the depth chart that player will replace. They could be tired of competing with younger faster players and prefer the team sign players who face the same aches and pains of age they do. They could want to get paid more and extended, and feel the team spending big on other aging players sets a good precedent for that. They could be married with kids and want more teammates for playdates at the park with their wives not 4AM at the club.

Look, if the Saints were brining in Colin Kaepernick or Jake Paul or Russ Wilson for a tryout somebody on the team would tweet in favor of signing them. Someone would agree with Colin on politics or see social media opportunities collaborating with Paul or prefer Wilson to Carr. To me, this 'recruiting' by other players is often noise. It could be a benefit if the Saints are fiercly competing for a highly sought after free agent, but in this case when that free agent has been on the market for 6 months with no takers at their price, we dont need that help.

Re: Justin Simmons Visiting Saints
 

It's incredible how fantastically attuned you are to the innerworkings of a NFL locker room. You are so immensely impressive with your extensive knowledge of everything great or small!

Re: Justin Simmons Visiting Saints
 

A secondary this strong buys the D Line another second or two.

I'll take a coverage sack!

Re: Justin Simmons Visiting Saints
 

Re: Justin Simmons Visiting Saints
 

yes he is... your sarcasm is another virtue of hatred being displayed. Haters gonna Hate! :beatnik:

Re: Justin Simmons Visiting Saints
 

I dont even think this is unique to nfl locker rooms. Lets say you work at Nike in the marketing department and a guy you are vaguely acquainted with on linkedin who used to work in marketing at reebok before a layoff posts he is excited about his interview with nike (i am saying he posts because such a visit would not be in the news). If you comment on his post ‘hey man that would be great, good luck’ does that neccessarily mean you are the most dedicated employee and believe this guy will make Nike have a better year and is cleary preferable to filling the position by promoting from within. I doubt it. Maybe you are just being nice. Maybe you have no idea if the guy is good at his job but you liked having a beer at the convention and think he could replace the guy who forgets to set his lineup in your fantasy league. Maybe you are networking. Maybe you hope your boss sees the comment and sees you as being a team player for helping to recruit. Maybe you privately tell the boss this guy has a bad rep and maybe dont hire him but publicly you say ‘good luck man, hope you come aboard’ because you dont want to be seen by him, or your boss if he still wants to hire him, as interfering. Maybe you know he is struggling financially and needs imsurance for his sick kid. None of this makes you a bad employee, a lot of times you just havent worked closely with acquaintences applying to your employer so you cant say if they are good or bad but you recruit or encourage them for various personal and networking reasons other than surety of their greatness and your dedication to your department being #1. Linkedin/twitter work networking encouragements just arent all about company greatness first in any job.

Its also possible that Mathieu has a vested interest in not allowing the veteran safety market to collapse. He might have preferred Simmons to grt $15 million a year but that didnt happen, and Simmons may have to take a pay cut, but the longer Simmons remains unsigned the bigger that pay cut could be, not in Mathieu’s interests. Also the most the Saints max out their cap, the less they could afford to absorb the dead cap hit that would come with moving on from Mathieu in a future offseason if he declines, rather than restructuring. So if you are any aging vet you want your team to max out their cap so you get the Peat/Thomas retirement plan where you stay on the payroll 3 years after massive decline to draw down the dead cap hit with restructures.

Re: Justin Simmons Visiting Saints
 

God, I can't even start reading that without being overwhelmed! You are so incredible! So enlightening (if I would have spent my valuable time reading it)! Awesome!

Re: Justin Simmons Visiting Saints
 

geez Quido... haters gonna hate is actually you. and you use the Lord's name in vain..... :nono: :beatnik:

Re: Justin Simmons Visiting Saints
 

Re: Justin Simmons Visiting Saints
 

What

The

F.....

Re: Justin Simmons Visiting Saints
 

Looks like the Failclowns are going to start kicking that can. This is going to take some Loomis type maneuvering.

Re: Justin Simmons Visiting Saints
 

Just as I predicted this morning. Arthur Blank making moves to win. Gayle Benson and company…who knows.

Re: Justin Simmons Visiting Saints
 

Just look at old Arthur's success rate. LOL!

Re: Justin Simmons Visiting Saints
 

I love it! Who else is old the Falcons could sign? David-back-to-IR-i? Michael Thomas to replace Rondale Moore? Make it happen Terry!

Re: Justin Simmons Visiting Saints
 

Any word on what it cost them? Just curious as to whether it was so far out of the realm of reason that other teams didn't bother.

Re: Justin Simmons Visiting Saints
 

$8mil. Its not a fortune but every dollar we dont spend gives us more flexibility if we end up needing to get out of contracts like Carr, Ram, or orhers of our many aging starts next offseason. Since we have restructured all these contracts so many years in a row, they come with massive dead cap hits to cut, but if we dont cut we will just kick the can and pay them more. If they all have great years and we win great, but its good to have options not be forced to the same roster in 2025.

Re: Justin Simmons Visiting Saints
 

Atlanta had a greater need and Simmons (seemingly about $) made a business decision. I have to hope this came down to money - we had his former coaches on staff for pete's sake.