Titans enthusiasts howled and howled as they saw defensive lineman Jeffery Simmons play his first NFL games in the middle of last season, resulting in a quick return from an anterior cruciate ligament tear in his left knee.
Simmons, the team’s first-round pick in 2019, had another reaction when he returned to review the film for his rookie season.
“I said, “No, it’s not me, ” said Simmons in a call to the Zoom convention on Monday. “I know what kind of guy I am.”
The ability to bend absolutely, to push his foot to the ground, to overtake a blocker, not quite back, Simmons said. The defensive lineman had 32 tackles in total, two catches and four tackles for a loss in nine regular season games last season (including seven starts), however, that edition of Simmons still bets with a splint on his left knee.
“There’s a lot I haven’t noticed (of myself) about the film and I know I can do this year to come,” he said. “That’s the purpose of this year here: to see how much I can grow until last year. That’s why I’m so excited.”
Simmons no longer wants a knee brace and runs to the knee, which says he feels good. He added that his ability to bend and replace direction is much greater now than last season.
“Everything is more fluid for me,” he says.
Simmons is also lighter now. He said he played at around 320 pounds last season, however, concentrating on fat loss and maintaining healthier nutrition during the off-season helped him achieve his 310-pound goal.
Instead of bird wings in the Titans cafeteria, Simmons chooses salad, he said. Instead of eating snacks late, he cut the time he stopped having dinner at night.
“It’s just being disciplined with myself,” he said. “I’m exactly where I need to be for next season. The weight I have now is on my knee.”
In an unexpected move, the Titans moved to the defensive lineman five times to Pro Bowl Jurrell Casey to the Denver Broncos for a seventh-round pick in March. That left Simmons in the most sensitive depth chart and in a position to play a more important role in 2020, with DaQuan Jones as another force forged in the defensive line.
“Clearly we’re waiting for a transition,” Titans coach Mike Vrabel said in April, when asked about the developing expectations for the role of Simmons in 2020, “and that would be the plan, to make Jeffery’s role bigger at the time. year.”
Simmons and Casey were recovering from their injuries at the last education camp and spent even more time in combination than as members of the same position organization.
Simmons said he absorbed Casey a lot, watching him deal with things.
“My arrival as a rookie, especially when injured, was my chance to sit down and have a (mindset) of leader and at the same time, sit back and watch Jurrell lead the team and how he led the defense. Simmons said. “Personally, I don’t feel like I’ve been pressured to be Jurrell or be someone else. I’m just trying to be the most productive Jeffery Simmons I can be.”
Contact Erik Bacharach on [email protected] and on Twitter @ErikBacharach.