Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LaFleur spoke of the vision he has for linebacker Isaiah Simmons when they announced his signing in early May and now, defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley is putting the ground work to make that happen.
Simmons is turning over a new leaf after below standard stints with Arizona Cardinals and New York Giants. He was drafted eighth overall in 2020 but failed to carve out a career expected from someone who had a decorated college career.
He played for Clemson for four seasons and had tremendous upside, most notably because of his versatility that allowed him to play defensive end, cornerback, and safety.
He had solid appearances with those teams but the standards were just higher for him.
With a new team now, Simmons is optimistic that he will be able to put up a better season, especially now that he is allowed to focus on what he does best.
Isaiah Simmons focusing on LB role more
“I know he’s working hard at it defensive schemes]. I think we have a vision for him, and we’ll just watch and see how that progresses over time.”
That is what LaFleur said about him more than a month ago. Simmons is living it now after their first few practices.
He especially gave credit to Hafley for utilizing his strength unlike with the other teams.
“I think really what I ran into most of my career is everybody wants me to do everything, as opposed to letting me get really good at one thing first,” Simmons told reporters on Thursday.
“I fully believe in Haf’s plan. He’s letting me just lock in and learn a small portion first before we even think about expanding to anything else. That’s something I really appreciate, because I never really had that opportunity to really just hone in on one position…just being able to lock in on one thing, and do that 1/11 every day, that’s been huge for me.”
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