By CJ Carlson
Justin Simmons has long been the best free agent on the open market and to the surprise of everybody, he’s yet to have a visit with anyone. That changed the other day when he chose to sit down with the New Orleans Saints. Now, that meeting has come and gone, with Simmons leaving today without a deal in place. So, where do both the Saints and Simmons go from here?
Well, to start, the Saints need to continue to push towards getting a deal done. After watching the Saint’s defense throughout 2023, it was clear that they were missing something in the secondary. Marcus Maye simply didn’t perform up to expectations back there alongside Tyrann Mathieu, and it’s why Jordan Howden is currently slotted as the starting beside him in 2024. But, despite Howden having a high ceiling, there isn’t a question that he’s better than Simmons right now.
Simmons spent eight seasons with the Denver Broncos and racked up 30 interceptions in that span. On top of that, he had 64 passes defensed, 4.5 sacks, and over 600 total tackles. The thought of placing him in this Saints secondary feels like a dream. He’d be playing alongside Mathieu, Marshon Lattimore, rookie Kool-Aid McKinstry, and two young standouts Paulson Adebo and Alontae Taylor.
Couple that with Cam Jordan, Chase Young, and Carl Granderson coming off the edge and Demario Davis still leading the charge in the middle of the field, and this unit is very scary. Of course, Simmons hasn’t signed yet, so that point is irrelevant at the moment. Regardless, it’s more to show what this unit could look like if he were to join, and why the Saints should be motivated to lock him down.
To many, it’s probably surprising to see Simmons meet with the Saints out of all teams. However, looking deeper, it isn’t. New Orleans’ current defensive coordinator Joe Woods was working alongside Simmons as the defensive backs coach in Denver when he was just a rookie in the league. For the next two seasons after that, Woods was promoted to defensive coordinator. Simmons knows him quite well and got accustomed to the league with him leading the way. There is no question that it has impacted his decision to meet with New Orleans. It also isn’t surprising to hear that the Saints have been in contact with Simmons since free agency began. The reason nothing has happened up to this point is because Simmons in particular wanted to take this process slowly before jumping on board.
I believe that it’s likely we will see Simmons meet with at least one more team before this entire process is over, though, with training camp upon us, he probably doesn’t want to wait much longer. The more training camp he misses, the less time he has to prepare and get used to a new team, which he’s doing for the first time in his career as well.