Ohio State OT Josh Simmons Scouting Report | 2025 NFL Draft Analysis - video Dailymotion

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Josh Simmons will be a steal. Joe DeLeone and Ryan Roberts break down the 2025 NFL Draft prospect from Ohio State football in their Josh Simmons scouting report

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00:00Josh Simmons is the most athletic offensive tackle prospect in the 2025 NFL Draft, but

00:05here's why he won't be the first selected.

00:11Josh Simmons is the most athletic offensive tackle in the 2025 NFL Draft, but Ryan, why

00:17won't he be the first offensive lineman selected?

00:21I mean, unfortunately, it's the patella injury that had cost him the tail end of the Ohio

00:25State season, or I guess the majority of the back end of the Ohio State season.

00:30He suffered against Oregon, and then obviously he hasn't been able to participate in any

00:34of the pre-draft conversations.

00:35So there's a lot of archaic scouts, Joe, as you know, that want to see that 40 time.

00:40They want to see those testing numbers, a 10-yard split for an offensive lineman.

00:44Josh Simmons wasn't able to participate in any of those things.

00:46So he is going to ultimately be one of the biggest value picks, I think, in the 2025

00:51NFL Draft.

00:52I don't think he'll go in the first round at some point, but unfortunately, the injury

00:55I do think is going to cause him to go behind a couple of other talented offensive linemen

01:00in this class.

01:02Removing the injury because that's part of the conversation.

01:05Other guys that are going to be deemed ready to play right away are getting prioritized,

01:09whether that's Will Campbell, whether it's Armond Membaugh.

01:12Simmons, I think at the end of the first round, is going to be one of the best value picks.

01:17This year, I don't think anyone put out better offensive tackle tape than Josh Simmons.

01:22I think that that has been so forgotten because he only played a very short portion of the

01:27beginning of the season for Ohio State.

01:29He has some of the best fluid movements I've seen for a tackle in my time scouting.

01:35I love his feet.

01:37I love the way that he mirrors.

01:38He is impossible to get by because he transitions and is able to slide back and forth so, so

01:45easily.

01:46I mean, it was a really interesting just jump that he made this year because he played for

01:51Ohio State, obviously, in 2023 after transferring over from San Diego State.

01:55He was solid in 2023, right?

01:58He wasn't a bad player by any stretch.

02:00I think he had a preseason fourth round grade on him, so I liked a lot of the athletic gifts

02:03that he brought to the table.

02:05But the things that you wanted to see take a jump and that he did take a jump on was

02:08one, I think the game slowed down because he's a really athletic kid.

02:12But I think the other thing, Joe, is that we saw an improved power profile for him this

02:15past year as well.

02:16I think being with Ohio State for multiple years and having that strength and conditioning

02:20program, I think that that really upped his game from his time at San Diego State.

02:24So we're talking now a young man that I think if he didn't get injured, would have had a

02:28chance to be a top 10 NFL draft pick in 2025 and to be the first offensive lineman just

02:33off the board.

02:35Like you said, you're getting a value and you're getting that value because this kid,

02:38I believe, is the best blindside protector potentially to come out in this draft.

02:43For so many players that we're debating on if they're a guard or a tackle, I don't have

02:47any questions based upon the size, length, athleticism perspective that Josh Simmons

02:52can stick at left tackle.

02:54Just to identify some weak points, he's still an improving player.

02:58The injury is always going to get brought up first when you've got a lower body injury

03:02for an offensive lineman.

03:04How soon is he going to be ready to go?

03:06Is this going to be something that maybe lingers?

03:09Offensive linemen with lower body injuries are always worrying.

03:13Other than that, though, he still needs to, I think, work on his hand placement.

03:17I think that there are plenty of times on reps where his lower body's great.

03:21He's sliding.

03:22He's really sunk down into his base really, really well, but he's grabbing guys on the

03:27outside of their shoulder pads.

03:29We just need a little bit better consistency with that technique.

03:32Yeah, I think the outside hand placement was one thing that I had noted.

03:35I agree with you 100% there.

03:36I also think just the timing of his punch is a little bit inconsistent.

03:39It wasn't as bad in 2024 as it was the previous year.

03:44I still think that it took a step forward.

03:47Those things can always be improved.

03:48We're talking about punch timing and location.

03:50I also think the other thing, Joe, is although I thought he played was awesome the beginning

03:55of this year, we didn't get to see him against the best of the best of the schedule.

03:59He only played for part of the Oregon game.

04:01We didn't see him, obviously, in that matchup with Abdul Carter that he would have had a

04:05couple weeks after that.

04:07I still would have loved to see a little bit more of a sample size against some of the

04:10best rushers on his schedule.

04:12There is going to be a little bit of question of, hey, he had a great beginning of the year,

04:16but when he started getting to the dog days and he had to go against James Pierce Jr.

04:20and Abdul Carter and Notre Dame and those types of schools, would he have still looked

04:24quite as good as he did early on in the season?

04:27We need to see that question on the table, but I do think that that is remedied by the

04:31fact that if we're projecting forward, he has great athletic traits that would be able

04:36to ascend to that spot, but that still is a little bit of a question until it is not

04:39a question anymore.

04:41Touching on his background as a recruit, back in the 2021 class, he originally played for

04:47San Diego State in his first year as a starter.

04:49He was tremendous for the Aztecs, which warranted an opportunity for him to hop in the portal

04:54and transfer to Ohio State, was very highly coveted that year in the portal.

04:59His composite ranking per 247 sports, he was the 342nd ranked recruit nationally, the 25th

05:07ranked interior offensive lineman, interestingly enough, and there was the 30th ranked recruit

05:12in the state of California.

05:13One would assume that USC and UCLA were probably kicking themselves that they missed out on

05:20this guy.

05:21Well, it's a really weird background because like you say, he's listed as an interior offensive

05:25lineman.

05:26I saw the comp that 247 had on him was Brandon Brooks, who was a former interior offensive

05:30lineman, obviously for the Philadelphia Eagles, right?

05:32He was a really good guard in his NFL career.

05:35So projections inside for whatever reason, don't know if maybe it was a little bit heavier

05:39coming out of high school.

05:40I'm not really sure, but he also had a extensive offer list and, and when we say offer lists,

05:46it doesn't always mean that a guy is a take at every school, right?

05:49Like some schools just throw out offers, but then they're not committable offers ultimately.

05:54But he had USC, he had Washington, he had Penn state, he had Oregon, he had Georgia,

06:00he had Oklahoma, he had Nebraska, Michigan, Michigan state, Miami, Duke, Arkansas.

06:05I mean, there was a lot of options on the table for Josh Simmons.

06:10He obviously ended up to stay home in the state of California and play at San Diego

06:15state.

06:16So I'm a little bit interested in, I wish I would've been able to talk about this at

06:18the combine, but like, why ultimately did you choose to stay home and go to San Diego

06:23state when you had some very big offers that were ultimately on the table, but it was obviously

06:28a big victory at the time for San Diego state.

06:30And luckily for him that he found his way to Ohio state, because I think that that transfer

06:33opportunity really took his game to the next level before his final two seasons are pro

06:39cop for him.

06:40We're going with Charles cross the former Mississippi state offensive lineman.

06:43That was the ninth overall pick to the Seattle Seahawks.

06:48Not that long ago in the 2022 NFL draft, he's been a quality starter.

06:51The rest of that offensive line has been a bit of a mess.

06:54So it's kind of, he gets dragged down and dragged into that quality of that offensive

06:58line play.

06:59But when he tested at the combine, he was a freakish athlete.

07:02And I think that we would have gotten similar numbers if Josh Simmons was available to participate

07:07in his, uh, in his combine workout.

07:09Well, in his last two years at Mississippi state, I think it's very similar to what we

07:14saw with Josh Simmons.

07:15We talked about it.

07:16He Charles cross was a really good pass protector who needed to get physically stronger.

07:21Like that was one thing that we needed to see him at Mississippi state.

07:25Right now, Josh Simmons was a little bit of a lighter player.

07:29His previous, his first year, I should say at Ohio state.

07:32But then we saw him take a jump from a just power profile perspective.

07:36And now we're talking about an all around left tackle on the NFL level.

07:39Similarly to what we saw from Charles, Charles cross, excuse me, developing into one of the

07:44best young blindside protectors on the national football league.

07:47Folks, comment below.

07:49What team do you want to see Josh Simmons play for hit that like button and subscribe.

07:52We'll talk to you later.

Ohio State OT Josh Simmons Scouting Report | 2025 NFL Draft Analysis

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