GREEN BAY, Wis. \u2014 After finishing minicamp Thursday, the Green Bay Packers now look forward to training camp in late July.<\/p>\n
There were bigger offseason splashes than the Packers signing linebacker Isaiah Simmons in free agency. That doesn\u2019t mean he won\u2019t have a big impact.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I bring, my speed, just being out to play sideline to sideline, hit, run fast,\u201d said Simmons. \u201cI just \u00a0feel like that\u2019ll be able to be implemented in, used in many different forms.\u201d<\/p>\n
Originally the eighth pick out of Clemson in the 2020 Draft by the Arizona Cardinals, Simmons spent the last two years with the New York Giants. He\u2019s been a hybrid player who can also be a safety.<\/p>\n
The Packers want Simmons concentrating on linebacker.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy versatility, I mean, I feel like it\u2019s a little bit of a gift and a curse,\u201d admitted Simmons. \u201cMost of my career, everybody wants me to do everything, as opposed to letting me get really good at one thing first. I fully believe in Haf\u2019s plan. He\u2019s let me just lock in.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 6\u20194\u201d, 230 pound Simmons explained why he\u2019s especially anxious to play for Packers defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like his coaching style,\u201d said Simmons. \u201cI like his staff that he\u2019s accumulated. I feel like everybody has the same visions, same goals. Everybody\u2019s on the same page of what\u2019s going on. Every coordinator, they run their defense different, have different nuances within their game. I just feel like Haf\u2019s defenses fits me better. I just like his vision, his creativity. I feel like I need to be with a guy who\u2019s creative.\u201d<\/p>\n
Packers safety Xavier McKinney, who played with Simmons in New York, spoke up on Simmons\u2019 behalf with the powers-that-be in Green Bay.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt means a lot, especially coming from a guy like X,very respected guy in this league,\u201d said Simmons. \u201cHaving guys like that in your corner definitely means a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n
Simmons is only 26-years-old. The Packers hope they signed him at just the right time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GREEN BAY, Wis. \u2014 After finishing minicamp Thursday, the Green Bay Packers now look forward to training camp…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":91220,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2072],"tags":[1615,1613,15638,7,41,345,2514,2513,88,6,428,9,1004,991],"class_list":{"0":"post-127264","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-green-bay-packers","8":"tag-app-sports","9":"tag-app-top-stories","10":"tag-dennis-krause","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-green-bay","13":"tag-green-bay-packers","14":"tag-greenbay","15":"tag-greenbaypackers","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-nfl","18":"tag-packers","19":"tag-sports","20":"tag-top-stories","21":"tag-wisconsin"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114677463466082923","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127264\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}