Just because a player is drafted in the top 10 of the draft does not guarantee any modicum of success. It does nothing to guarantee job security, playing time, or ability. It does guarantee them a whole lotta nothing. Just ask the Arizona Cardinals regarding their selection of Clemson linebacker Isaiah Simmons in the 2020 NFL Draft.
It took Simmons all of three years of struggling to eventually change teams. The New York Giants bit on the potential and traded for the former first-rounder in 2023 with the hopes he'd help transform the defense with his unusually unique skillset. Simmons is one of the rare athletic unicorns whose size and athleticism have no business working together, but they do. It makes no sense — he's a 6-foot-4, 240-pound defensive hybrid and runs a 4.3 40-yard dash.
By all accounts, his athletic profile shouldn’t exist. But the Giants never figured out what to do with it. Now, he's turning to the elements to save his once-promising career.
Giants couldn’t unlock Isaiah Simmons’ potential... maybe the Packers will
Instead of leaning into one of his strengths, New York tried to use all of them at once... at least according to Simmons. One week he was playing linebacker, the next he was lined up over the slot, and the next he was taking special teams reps. He didn’t carve out a defined role—because there wasn’t one to carve out. That’s how a 6-foot-4 guy with 4.3 speed ends up playing limited defensive snaps.
And now, of course, Simmons is spinning it the only way he can: as fuel.
“They lit a fire under me,” he said recently, via Matt Schneidman of The Athletic. “This will never happen again.”
That fire has taken him to Green Bay, where he’s trying to finally become what Arizona and New York never let him be—just a linebacker. No more Swiss Army knife gimmick. No more spot-duty mystery role. Packers defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley is keeping it simple: learn one position, get good at it, then expand. Simmons called it a “huge” shift from how the Giants handled him.
And maybe it works. Maybe this time he puts it all together. But that doesn’t change what happened in New York. We’re not saying Big Blue deserves credit for the resurgence — but when you’re a former top-10 pick on your third team in six years, maybe that fire should’ve been lit a long time ago.
Simmons was a low-risk flyer who never flew. He gave the G-Men a few splash plays—an interception return TD, a blocked kick, a forced fumble—but no staying power. He wasn’t part of the long-term plan, and the front office made that crystal clear when it chose steady veterans like Chris Board over rolling the dice again on an athletic project who hadn't put it together five years into his career.
Now, Simmons is Green Bay’s problem. And if that fire he’s talking about ever turns into consistent output, good for him. But in New York, he was the spark with nowhere to catch fire.