Prospect Profile: Josh Simmons, OT, Ohio State

Protecting the Passer

His athleticism jumps off the film from the first moment after the snap. He explodes out of his stance and comes under control quickly. He has ridiculously quick and nimble feet for his size but they’re efficient too. He is never in trouble because of his footwork and maintains the half-man with all-comers. He moves well regardless of the type of set he’s taking and intersects most types of edge-rusher at the right moment. Those with very good rush plans can put him in some peril, if they are patient. You can see hesi moves work against him on tape because it messes up his strike timing which is normally excellent. If you can get him to lunge at the wrong moment and get him out of rhythm, he will lunge and waist-bend. His athleticism can get him out of this trouble at times but those elite pass-rushers can and will take advantage of this until he gets it fixed at the next level. His hand usage is good when he works with independent hands and starts with an inside strike, this is normally well timed, placed and he has excellent upper body strength and grip strength to control the rep. His outside hand can be a little like a windsock at an airport on a stormy day – flailing and easily re-directed, this puts him in trouble when his inside hand doesn’t latch well against those Defensive Linemen with great length and excellent hand usage, if they get into him first. But his modus operandi in pass protection is his inside strike, paired with his outstanding footwork and it allows him to be consistently good as a pass protector. He has a solid anchor and can use his feet to reset and re-gain leverage when challenged.

Run Blocking

On the move: He has very good play speed and you can see this when he’s running around at the second level looking to block smaller defenders – he can match athleticism with far smaller and seemingly more nimble guys. He can wall off on Duo and prevent the defender from leveraging his gap, playing with good play strength in this situation. As the Buckeyes ran so much Zone he became very proficient at the things they asked him to do within the scheme, including great fit and finish on fan blocks, deploying his moderately impressive explosive power on impact. He uses his athleticism extremely well to cut off free-runners in the backside gap. His explosion, hip fluidity and lateral athleticism make him an ideal fit for a Zone blocking Tackle, particularly on back-side cut-off blocks. In space he does have a major deficiency that limits his effectiveness currently – he gets in the vicinity of the defender but then doesn’t always position well at the last minute to make the block and his fit is inconsistent, inaccurate with his initial strike. This limits his ability to finish at the second level. He could also use angles more to his advantage when out at the second level. On double teams, he is effective in popping at the line of scrimmage before releasing at the right moment.
Run blocking the big dude across from you: He didn’t have to do too much of this at Ohio State but you can see plenty to make a projection here. He can down block any DL aligned from a 4i outwards and will deploy his core strength well due to technically sound fit and finish on these blocks. On more heads-up Gap blocks like Drive blocks, his fit is less solid and he can lose quickly to those DL with good hand usage themselves. He is effective as a puller because of his athleticism.

DRAFTED RAVEN COMP
Roger Rosengarten with less issues to resolve coming out of college, but Simmons’ issues are tougher to fix

PRODUCTION
SR: 306 snaps at LT
JR: 824 snaps at LT
INJURY HISTORY: Sr: Torn Left Patella Tendon – Missed half the season

RAVENS FIT
Expl. Athleticism 5
Ftbl Intelligence 3
Vrsatility 2
Grit 3
Scheme 5