No Matt Judon extension is complete, however the Chris Lindstrom restructure will make way for one more key payment. Justin Simmons‘ recent Falcons visit will produce a deal.
Atlanta is bringing within the longtime Denver safety starter on a one-year, $8MM accord, NFL.com’s Tom Pelissero tweets. It will give the Falcons an elite safety duo, with Simmons — a four-time All-Pro — set to team with Jessie Bates. Former Simmons Broncos teammate Su’a Cravens, now with CBS Sports Central, initially reported this deal would come to pass. Raheem Morris and Falcon defenders Bates, AJ Terrell and Grady Jarrett joined Simmons for dinner during his visit, with veteran reporter Jordan Schultz indicating this helped seal the deal.
Simmons will receive $7.5MM fully guaranteed, NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport tweets. After all, guarantees on this contract are less vital resulting from vested veterans’ salaries locking in only before Week 1. The Athletic’s Jeff Howe labels this a one-year, $7.5MM pact that encompasses a $500K incentive for a first-team All-Pro nod.
Still, Simmons does much better than a veteran-minimum deal after a lengthy free agency stay. The previous Broncos defensive centerpiece — released in March in a Broncos cost-cutting move — could have a probability to create a 2025 marketplace for himself, and the Falcons could have exclusive negotiating rights with the ninth-year veteran until March.
Since Simmons’ 2016 NFL debut, nobody has more interceptions than the previous third-round pick. The Boston College product snared 30 in Denver. 4 of those got here off Patrick Mahomes, though team success eluded the seven-year Denver starter. Drafted two months after the Broncos’ Super Bowl 50 win, Simmons soon toiled for a franchise that struggled to interchange Peyton Manning. Because the Russell Wilson trade didn’t pan out, Simmons and Patrick Surtain led in keeping the Denver defense afloat. Simmons has camped on the All-Pro second team, landing there 4 times since 2019.
Although Simmons played under Vic Fangio and Ejiro Evero, he’ll as an alternative land in Atlanta. Morris worked with Evero in Los Angeles, which should make a quicker acclimation process possible for the 30-year-old defender. Simmons had said he desired to sign with a contender. While the Falcons haven’t qualified as such since midway through the Dan Quinn years, they’ve operated aggressively to vary that this offseason. Kirk Cousins‘ arrival spearheaded the trouble, and Simmons will join Judon in helping Atlanta try and snap a postseason hiatus. The Falcons’ drought has lasted almost so long as the Broncos’, with the 2017 divisional round doubling because the team’s most up-to-date playoff outing.
Simmons led the NFL with six interceptions in 2022, helping keep the Broncos in close games amid their maddening Wilson-Nathaniel Hackett season, and his return from injury last yr — after the Dolphins’ 70-20 demolition — coincided with a midseason turnaround. Also intercepting five passes in the course of the 2020 and ’21 seasons, Simmons will join a Falcons secondary that just received a powerful Bates debut. The ex-Bengal intercepted six passes and compelled three fumbles in his first Falcons slate (Simmons forced five fumbles over the past two years). Bates is tied to a four-year, $64MM deal — one which checked in only higher than Simmons’ 2021 Broncos extension.
Given his age, Simmons is unlikely to return too near a future deal within the ballpark of the one he inked three years ago (4 years, $61MM). But he played three years on that contract and picked up franchise tag money in 2020. Simmons can push his profession earnings past $70MM on this Falcons pact.
The Falcons have former second-round pick Richie Grant under contract, but part-time starter DeMarcco Hellams sustained a major ankle injury recently. Although Grant has began 32 profession games — including 15 last season — this addition stands to cut back his role. It needs to be expected the Falcons will trot out a Bates-Simmons pair in a secondary that also includes Terrell’s rookie contract.
After the Saints brought within the completed safety for a gathering early in training camp, the Falcons will as an alternative swoop in. It can now be interesting to see in the event that they hammer out an agreement with Judon, who spent his final months in Latest England angling for brand new terms.
