No Matt Judon extension is complete, but the Chris Lindstrom restructure will make way for another critical payment. Justin Simmons‘ Falcons visit will produce a deal.
Atlanta is bringing in the longtime Denver safety starter on a one-year, $8M accord, NFL.com’s Tom Pelissero reports. This 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.
Simmons will receive $7.5M fully guaranteed, NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport reports. Of course, guarantees on this contract are less crucial due to vested veterans’ salaries locking in just before Week 1. Still, Simmons does far better than a veteran-minimum deal after a lengthy free agency stay. The former Broncos defensive centerpiece will have a chance to create a 2025 market for himself, and the Falcons will have exclusive negotiating rights with the ninth-year veteran until March.
Since Simmons’ 2016 NFL debut, no one has more interceptions than the former third-round pick. The Boston College product snared 30 in Denver. Four came 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 replace Peyton Manning. Simmons and Patrick Surtain kept the Denver defense afloat because the Russell Wilson trade did not pan out. Simmons has camped on the All-Pro second team, landing there four times since 2019.
Although Simmons played under Vic Fangio and Ejiro Evero, he will land in Atlanta instead. Raheem 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 wanted to land with a contender. While the Falcons have not qualified as such since midway through the Dan Quinn years, they have operated aggressively to change that this offseason. Kirk Cousins‘ arrival spearheaded the effort, and Simmons will join Judon in helping Atlanta attempt to snap a postseason drought. The Falcons’ drought has lasted almost as long as the Broncos, with the 2017 divisional round doubling as the team’s most recent 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 — after the Dolphins’ 70-20 demolition — coincided with a midseason turnaround. Also intercepting five passes during the 2020 and ’21 seasons, Simmons will join a Falcons secondary that just received a strong Bates debut. The ex-Bengal intercepted six passes and forced three fumbles in his first Falcons slate. Bates is tied to a four-year, $64M deal that checked in just higher than Simmons’ 2021 Broncos extension.
Given his age, Simmons is unlikely to come too close to a deal in the ballpark of the one he inked three years ago (four years, $61M). But he played three years on that contract and collected franchise tag money in 2020. The Falcons have former second-round pick Richie Grant under contract, but part-time starter DeMarcco Hellams recently sustained a significant ankle injury. Although Grant has started 32 career games — including 15 last season — this addition reduces his role. It should be expected the Falcons will trot out a Bates-Simmons pair in a secondary that still includes AJ Terrell‘s rookie contract.
