Ohio State OT Josh Simmons 2025 NFL Draft Profile

Josh Simmons, OT, Ohio State

Height: 6'5
Weight: 310 pounds

Strengths

• Athleticism: Simmons is a silky smooth athlete, with elite quickness out of his stance and is highly effective on the move. He can reach and seal with ease, and has little issue handling speed on the outside. On film, he's well-balanced and in full control and is comfortable playing on an island in pass protection. 

• Pass Protection Technique: Simmons might be the best pure pass blocker in this class with his technique. He doesn't overset out of his stance, he handles stunts and blitzes with ease, and doesn't get fooled by what opposing rushers throw at him. The most impressive growth from last season, in my opinion, is Simmons's use of hands in pass protection. His accuracy with his punches and his ability to quickly reset his hands to control a rep has improved significantly from last season. 

• Play Strength: Simmons is physically imposing, and he backs it up with his play strength. He is quick to anchor and his very good anchor shuts down rushers trying to go through him. When he lands punches, he jolts rushers back and often finishes reps immediately because of his power. Simmons creates easy displacement in the run game and plows the way forward for runners.

• Versatility: Simmons has played at a high level at both left and right tackle in his collegiate career.

Weaknesses

• Injury: Simmons tore his ACL in Ohio State's Week 7 loss to Oregon

• Level of Competition: Unfortunately, Simmons played a lot of poor opponents to start this season and got hurt in their only game against quality competition. Given his struggles against Missouri and Penn State last season, it would have been nice to see him play top rushers this season. It's good that he absolutely dominated lesser competition though. 

• Technique in Run Game: I am slightly reaching here, but this was a concern on his 2023 film that we didn't get to see addressed much against poor competition this season. I'd like to see his hand placement and pad level in the run game against better competition because he was on the ground a little too often last season. 

Player Evaluation

Truthfully, I enjoyed Simmons's film. He has some of the best tools in this class, and his technique looked much improved from last season, particularly in pass protection. I wasn't exaggerating when I said he might be the best pure pass protector in this tackle class. 

There are some minor things to tick off and note, but it was starting to become too much of a reach to call them true "weaknesses" on his film. He dominated lower competition this season and didn't leave a lot of doubts on the film. Had he not been injured, I have no doubt we'd be talking about him as an easy top-10 selection right now. 

Player Comparison

Charles Cross (Seattle Seahawks)

Simmons has more exposure in the run game than Cross did coming out of Mississippi State, but they shared those minor technique concerns in run blocking. However, both were ready-made NFL pass protectors, and that has shown for Cross virtually right away.  

A to Z Rankings

A to Z Consensus Big Board Ranking: #69 overall, #9 offensive tackle

A to Z Draft Grade: 7.46

Draft Projection: Day Two Selection