NFL execs divided on the Titans Jeffery Simmons pick

ESPN did a piece where they talked to NFL executives about every team’s draft. It should come as no surprise that the focus of the discussion surrounding the Titans draft is Jeffery Simmons. One executive loved the pick (from the above linked article):

“I would have taken that pick every day,” a GM said. “He is one of the top two players in this draft. His character does not scare me one bit.”

The piece says another GM called Simmons the best player in the draft.

It wasn’t all love, however:

“I’m less excited about Simmons,” this evaluator said. “He is really good, but guys coming off ACLs in that situation have been questionable. The history is not inspiring.”

That is a fair concern. The recovery from ACL injuries has come a long way in the past few years, so we all assume that he will come back from this injury as good as he was before. There is no guarantee of that.

The encouraging part of this injury is that there was a medical re-check in Indianapolis. The Titans must have received positive news from that or they would not have made the pick.