Here’s another of the New Orleans Saints’ 30 official visits before the NFL draft. ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports that Ohio State offensive lineman Josh Simmons visited the Saints on Monday before flying out to meet with the Arizona Cardinals on Tuesday. Schefter previously reported that Simmons visited the Indianapolis Colts and Kansas City Chiefs, as well as the Green Bay Packers and Baltimore Ravens, too. It’s been a busy spring for the former Buckeye as he expects to hear his name called late in Round 1 or early in Round 2 of this year’s draft.
Simmons hasn’t been able to complete pre-draft athletic testing after tearing his patellar tendon back in October, which limited him to just 306 snaps in his senior season. But he made a noticeable jump in cleaning up his technique and hand discipline, only drawing a single flag after he was fouled 8 times in 2023. Before that, he was penalized 17 times in 2022 at San Diego State, where he started at right tackle. He played left tackle at Ohio State.
But he might be someone the Saints see as a guard. Simmons measured in with 33-inch arms at the NFL Scouting Combine, which would fall in the 12th percentile among all offensive tackles. You could argue he put up the best tape among left tackles last season but we’ve seen teams move talented blockers inside before. And he’s the third offensive lineman facing that “guard over tackle” question we’ve seen the Saints bring in for one of these official 30 visits. Like Simmons, both Aireontae Ersery (Minnesota) and Josh Conerly (Oregon) are seen as fringe first round picks who might be available when the Saints are picking at No. 40 in Round 2.
Maybe they surprise us and draft one of them to try and get the offensive line right, but whether that means keeping someone at left tackle and moving Taliese Fuaga back to the right side (his college position), benching Trevor Penning, or keeping Fuaga and Penning on the bookends with a rookie converting to left guard remains to be seen.
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