The vast majority of the NFL’s most coveted free agents have already signed with teams this offseason, but one of the league’s top safeties of the last decade remains on the open market.
Two-time Pro Bowler Justin Simmons, a 31-year-old, nine-year veteran, remains available after his sole season with the Atlanta Falcons in 2024. No one has more interceptions than Simmons’ 32 since he entered the league as a third round pick of the Denver Broncos back in the 2016 NFL Draft. Simmons obviously would like to join a contender given he has never reached the postseason in his nine-year career, but the eight-year Bronco (2016-2023) would have conflicted feelings about joining the three-time defending AFC champion Kansas City Chiefs, his longtime AFC West division rival.
“Am I shutting that door? Am I closing it? No, but I want to be the team that beats them,” Simmons said Tuesday on Up & Adams with Kay Adams. “I’m not closing that door. I’m not that incompetent to think if Kansas City wanted me to come through, I wouldn’t, but I just want to beat them, man.”
A reunion with one of his former Broncos head coaches, Vic Fangio, who helped guide the Philadelphia Eagles to a Super Bowl LIX title in his first season as their defensive coordinator, would likely make the most sense. It would check the contention box, plus Simmons earned a Pro Bowl selection and two of his four career second-team All-Pro nods under Vangio’s guidance from 2019 to 2021. The Eagles also have a hole at safety after trading C.J. Gardner-Johnson and a 2026 sixth-round pick to the Houston Texans this offseason in exchange for offensive lineman Kenyon Green and a 2026 fifth-round pick.
“There was a lot of new [in Atlanta]. There was a new system, there was a new way to do it,” Simmons said. “Going to Philly with Vic, you know exactly what you’re getting out of me and I know exactly what I’m getting out of them because I’ve been in the system. I still have a ways to go to mastering it, but there are some things and nuances that I know Vic likes, that I know that [defensive backs coach] Christian Parker likes, and I think I could really help in that area. Obviously, them moving on from C.J. and what he’s poured into that city there is big shoes to fill, but I love what they have going with [safety Reed] Blankenship and the rest of the supporting cast there. So I don’t know, it’s interesting. I’m excited to see what happens.”
However, Simmons isn’t closing the door on a Falcons return, either, but he acknowledges the team could be trending toward a youth movement on its defense after an 8-9 campaign in which it had the league’s 23rd-ranked scoring defense (24.9 points per game allowed). Atlanta fired defensive coordinator Jimmy Lake this offseason and replaced him with former New York Jets defensive coordinator and interim head coach Jeff Ulbrich.
“At the end of the day, I think highly of Ra (coach Raheem Morris) and (general manager) Terry (Fontenot) and (owner) Arthur (Blank), and I think the organization is top notch,” Simmons said. “I do think they’re gonna be great. … It was a one-year thing. They like their younger guys, too. Sometimes, things don’t work out and you go in different directions. I don’t know if the door’s necessarily closed, but we’ll see.”
The earliest Simmons will likely find a new home is April 29, which is when an unrestricted free agents no longer qualify for the compensatory pick formula, meaning his new team wouldn’t have to surrender a future pick to Atlanta after signing him. Last year, Simmons signed with the Falcons in the middle of the preseason on Aug. 18. That’s something he would like to avoid by signing much earlier this offseason in order to build on-field chemistry with his teammates throughout the offseason.
“That’s always the goal,” Simmons said when talking about finding a new NFL home earlier this offseason than he did last offseason. “I think, yes, there’s pros and cons to training camp. Cons is going through it, your body breaking down, the whole nine, especially as you get older. But a lot of the pros is building that rapport, especially when you’re not with the team and you haven’t necessarily played with a lot of those guys. I think it would have benefited me to go a little bit earlier. But it also just wasn’t in the cards. … We’ll see. We’ll see. I want to go to the best situation, and I want to go a team that’s gonna win. So, we’ll see what that looks like.”
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