Titans defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons talks about his fourth straight Pro Bowl season, being nominated for the Walter Payton Man of the Year award and says Tennessee has a bright future because of rookie quarterback Cam Ward.
Various NFL Players: Hey, this is Russell Wilson. This is Joe Montana. This is Dak Prescott. Hey, this is Jason Kelce. You’re listening to Rob Maaddi. Rob Maaddi, Rob Maaddi, Rob Maaddi.
Rob Maadi, host: Welcome to On Football, I’m Rob Maaddi. Wild-card weekend is here, exciting games on tap. Six games in all, 49ers against Philly, Buffalo against Jacksonville, so many others. Looking forward to all of the great action wild-card weekend. Black Monday saw four more coaches get fired. Tough time for coaches, a lot of teams out there now looking for a new head coach, looking for new leadership. Our guest this week is Titans defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons, really enjoyed my conversation. Stay tuned for this one.
Raven’s rookie kicker Tyler Loop missed a 44-yard field goal that would have sent Baltimore to the playoffs as the AFC North champion and it would have sent the Steelers and Aaron Rodgers and Mike Tomlin home. Instead it’s Lamar Jackson headed into the offseason. Now Tyler you could see instantly felt terrible about it as any player would. John Harbaugh had to walk with his arm around the kid to the locker after the game. And he handled it well. He handled it as best as he could at his locker, addressing the media. And then if he turned on social media, which I hope he didn’t, Ravens fans absolutely destroyed the kid. And I understand being mad, being angry, being disappointed that your team didn’t win, but the nasty comments, the vile comments, not only attacking Tyler, but going after his fiancee. There’s a picture of him just getting engaged and — attacking her. It’s uncalled for, it’s unnecessary. There’s no justification for it. Fans just have to do better.
Jeffery Simmons is one of the NFL’s best interior defensive linemen, and he is Tennessee’s nominee for the third straight season for the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award. Jeffery, thanks for coming on the show, man. I know this season hasn’t gone the way that you guys would have hoped, but from a personal standpoint, right, you make the Pro Bowl for the fourth straight year, you’ve got a career high in sacks this season. How do you view the way the year went for you?
Jeffery Simmons, Titans defensive tackle: And I’m always a team-first guy, so I, of course, start off with my team. You know, it hasn’t been a year we expected, you know, coming out of training camp, and the hopes were very high, you now, the standards were very high, and personally, I thought we had something. I thought, you, know, which we, you know, our team, we still have a solid team, and, you know, the record don’t show that, but, you know, when you turn on the tape, you’re like, man, these guys played hard, they played together. Obviously, it didn’t go the way we wanted to go, but man, I’m grateful, So, you know, to it. The work I put in this offseason, everything I did this offseason, it had a purpose, I should say. From changing my diet, to the way I was committed with my workouts. Just everything, my mobility and things of that nature throughout the season. One thing that I’m big on is going back and reflecting. The season didn’t go well for me. What could I have done better? Word I kept coming back to was “consistency.”
MAADDI: When you think about the future and you look at what Cam Ward was able to do this year as a rookie, see, like I’m looking at his numbers and just from the outside, you see Payton Manning threw 28 picks in his rookie season. Cam Ward’s protected the football. He’s done a lot of good things. How excited are you about the future? What’s impressed you the most about playing with him?
SIMMONS: His poise, you know, I’m excited. I told our media after the, I think it was one home game, maybe on the road. And I was like, this is the reason why I’m so excited for our future here in Tennessee. He’s one of the reasons, like, you know, to see all young guys go out there and compete the way they compete, to see them come to work each and every day, make you excited, excited for the future, make you excited to come to work, you know even throughout a rough season because you know what you’re going to get out of the quarterback play. A guy who… You know, he competitive as hell. Like, I mean, everyone saw how, you know, we kind of was going back in training camp. Like I knew then, like this is a competitive guy and we’re going to be in great hands. So you know he’s a guy who come in with that attitude, you know even as captain means he’s competitive, man. He, his poise and his, his, his will to want to win, you know, it shows each and every day. And then on Sundays, I mean, some of the things he do on Sundays. I’m on the sideline like, bro, throw the ball away. But then he just magically, he’d get a first down. So it’s just things in NH2 where that’s the type of thing that excites you. And you understand the reason why he had them capabilities of being the No. 1 pick. So I mean, I’m a defensive guy. But when you see growth, you know growth. And Cam have gotten better throughout this year. So it was very exciting.
MAADDI: We mentioned the Pro Bowl, and you’ve been also second team All-Pro a few times. There’s a lot of individual awards, Jeffery, in this sport, right? But the one that guys often talk about, like, is so special, so meaningful to them, is the Walter Payton Man of the Year, because it recognizes what you do off the field, what you’re do in the community. What would it mean — three years in a row you’ve be the nominee for your team? What would mean to you to get that award?
SIMMONS: Man, you always look at the, man, I wanna be defensive player of the year. I wanna be, you know, this, that, MVP, but when you talk about the Walter Payton Man of the Year, and I always tell people, I don’t do the things I do in the community for that award. Of course it comes with it, and I’m grateful to be able to represent the Titans, but for the third year in a row. But that award, you now, it’s the reason why that award announced last at the NFL Honors, because that’s just how much that award means. To bring that award to Tennessee for the first time, I would be at a loss of words because that stands for something, you know. You know, not just your game on and I remember being on the Zoom with all the other 31 guys and I was just talking about just, you know, the work we are doing. I mean, it’s not done and I kind of shared a little bit about just what happened to me a weekend right before I got on that Zoom to, you know these young guys and these kids in our community, They really need us and that’s what my foundation is surrounded is the youth and you know each and every day I could step in community to make someone day better, to be the light that I know that we need, continue to use my platform to be able to, I guess, uplift all youth. I think that’s that’s what means the most to me, because all youth need us and that’s kind of what I kind of said even in my interview here I did kind of I’m sure you saw like with the break-in that happened in my house and when you turn on the video, film that I saw, all them guys look young. And it just, what if somebody with our platform could have touched one of them kids to just pull them out the street? And that’s the biggest thing that I try to do with my platform, no matter if it’s here or back in Mississippi. That’s the reason why I wanted to target our youth. I know how easy it is stepping in that field to want to be in the streets, to want it, I guess, gang bang, whatever it may be. Like, I know it how easy is, especially when you’re in a city like this or when you in a small town that I’m from. It would mean the world to me to be able to bring that trophy back to Nashville because it just wouldn’t be representing me, it would be representing all the people around me, all the the people that have helped me continue to use my platform and just the both communities that I serve here and in Mississippi.
MAADDI: It’s time for Pro Picks, the playoff edition. We went 2-2 straight up last week, 3-1 gainst the spread. So the four pack finished the regular season, 51-20-1 overall, 44-27-1 against the spread. That’s a .610 winning percentage. There are six games this weekend. I’m gonna give you two because I just don’t love all of them. I’ve got to pick them all. I’m going to give you two and I’m going to start with the best bet. LA Rams, 12-5, at Carolina. The Panthers were 8-9. They backed into the playoffs as the NFC South champion. Now, the Panthers stunned the Rams 31-28 at home on Nov. 30. Matthew Stafford threw two interceptions in that game, including a pick-six. Bryce Young had one of his best games of the season. He was 15 of 20, 206 yards, three touchdowns, no interceptions. L.A. was in the race for the number one seed, up until they lost back-to-back games to Seattle and Atlanta, Week 16 and 17, and Carolina, as I said earlier, they kind of backed into the playoffs. They got in when Atlanta beat New Orleans to eliminate Tampa Bay. Go figure. It was crazy in the NFC South. Panthers are the number four seed. They are the fifth team to reach the playoffs with a losing record. Now of the first four, including the Panthers, who did it in 2014, those teams are 2-2. Also, here’s another stat, road teams in the playoffs that have at least four more wins than their opponent, in which the LA Rams do, they’ve got 12, Carolina has eight, those road teams, in the playoffs are 2-6. But I don’t care about all that. The Rams are just a much better team. So forget about playoff history, Rams, 30-16. The other game I’ll give you, Buffalo 12-5 at Jacksonville 13-4. The Bills are one and a half point favorites. They didn’t win the AFC East, ending a five-year run. So they’ve got to take that wild-card route. They’re the number 16. But Josh Allen and the Bills, they don’t have to worry about the Chiefs this year. Patrick Mahomes and Kansas City didn’t make the playoffs. They knocked the Bills out four out of the last five seasons. Now, the Bills got an NFL rushing champion in James Cook. Takes some pressure off Josh Allen, but he’s going up against the Jaguars’ No. 1 run defense in the NFL. Whereas on the flip side, Trevor Lawrence had a great year in his first season under Liam Coen, but he is going up against the NFL’s number one pass defense in Buffalo. I think the Jaguars are ahead of schedule under Liam Coen. They’ve won eight in a row to close out the season, including the victory against Denver. Whereas the Bills and Sean McDermott and Josh Allen, it’s now or never. I’m taking the Bills, 26-23.
That’s it for this week. Thank you to Jeffery Simmons. Thank you for listening to On Football. And thank you to Haya Panjwani and Guillermo Gonzalez for producing this episode. Please check out APNews.com for the full Pro Picks, On Football analysis and more NFL news.
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