When it comes to evaluating talent, the NFL at times is a label-heavy league. Isaiah Simmons has spent his career shredding and redefining his.
Now with the Panthers, the former top 10 pick out of Clemson is no longer trying to prove he can play every position. He wants to bloom where his feet are: one position, one role, and one objective—to help Carolina build off of the momentum of last season.
You have been described as a Swiss Army knife in your career. In what ways has it helped you and hurt you?
Personally, I believe it is benefiting me and people believe that I could do multiple things regardless of if it’s in the secondary, on the line of scrimmage, or the middle of the field.
Just believing that I can get those responsibilities and get the job done. (Versatility) allows the defense to have multiple looks.
In ways it’s hurt me; I just feel like I haven’t been able to hone in on one position and live where my feet are. I’m learning one thing this day and another thing a different day, and the league is hard enough to master one position—let alone master three or four. And what I’ve been blessed with here is they’ve allowed me to bloom where my feet are”
Bloom where your feet are. What do you mean by that?
By that, I mean just being able to grow and be able to learn and stay in one position as opposed to one day I’m here, and I have these mistakes or, you know, those positive changes that happen. But then the next day, I’m in a completely different world of a different position. And by that, I mean it’s trying to grow two different fruit trees as opposed to just growing one.
Was it like that at Clemson? You were the Butkus Award Winner.
“The biggest difference between Clemson and what I’ve dealt with in the league is that it was still one position but different calls. I would have different responsibilities opposed to learning safety and then learning linebacker, and then maybe learning Sam linebacker, nickel or whatever it may be. Everything was still one position.
So say, I was a safety. We may have a call where it’s just a different alignment for me, and I have a different responsibility that may show up as like a linebacker. Then I could still have another call where I line up on the line of scrimmage and it may look like I’m a defensive end, but ultimately it’s still one position. I was also able to grow and learn in that one thing and then become multiple by adding things as my capacity grew.”
In the context of this team, this season and you as a player, what position is your strength and how does that strength fit in the team and this 3-4 scheme?
Coach E (Evero) likes to use bigger DB’s, and I feel like I really fit into what his scheme is.
At times, he uses like a dime linebacker, but it’s more of like a down safety, and it still has the same responsibilities and same techniques I would use at safety. So it’s not as if I’m learning linebacker now. It’s implementing the same techniques that I would use in the safety world down at the dime package.
Your blocked punt vs the Rams in the Wild Card game was huge. For someone that was a defensive star in college, how have you embraced the special team work? How did your attributes as a defensive guy help with special teams?
To me, making a play is making a play. Ball is ball. So regardless of what it is, it’s always gonna be you versus the man across from you, and the ultimate goal is to win your one-on-one. So I don’t really look at it as how I’m gonna be a better special teams or a better defensive guy. It’s more so, what’s my responsibility and how I’m gonna to beat that guy.
Carolina considered you for the 7th pick in 2020. They chose Derrick Brown. Three years and six teams later, you are here. What does that mean to you? How does it feel to be home?
I feel like everything happens for a reason. So, I can’t quite explain if I would have been happier if they would have picked me then or not.. I’m just blessed to still be able to be in this league and doing this at 28. As we know, this is a very short-lived career. Being in the NFL. So I just take every day as a blessing regardless of whatever other people’s opinions are. I just thank the man above for it—to still be able to be here and play the game that I love
What is it about the culture here and vibe that resonates with you?
You can feel the belief that they have. It’s a very happy environment that I walk into. We have a lot of players and coaches who are not just worried about their jobs, but also about how they can better us.
I’ve been around staffs where I didn’t feel that. It felt more as if they were worried about what they could do to keep themselves around as opposed to what they were going to do to better help the team, and I truly believe that this staff is truly focused on what we can do to make the team better than to just helping themselves out.
There’s a sense of hunger on the team, like there’s something to prove. What do you feel like you have to prove?
“I’m not really trying to prove anything to anybody. I always play for an audience of one, and that’s God. So in my opinion, I try to go out there every single day and find one thing I can do better than yesterday and grow as a player because that’s gonna help the team.
