One of the NFL Draft’s most highly-rated defensive players suffered a major injury while training for April’s event.
Jeffery Simmons, a defensive end out of Mississippi State University, confirmed in a post on twitter that he has torn his ACL while preparing for the draft.
Before his unfortunate injury, Simmons was widely projected to be a first round draft pick in April’s draft.
Simmons has been a standout defensive end throughout his college football career for Mississippi State University. He recorded an outstanding total of 30 tackles for a loss during his last two seasons.
He was named a member of the All-Southeastern Conference squad each year.
Simmons will undergo surgery to repair his torn ACL next week, but this throws his draft status in jeopardy. Teams might not be willing to select the defensive end as early as they might have otherwise due to the uncertainty surrounding his knee injury.
The 6’4”, 300 pound defensive end will miss all of the 2019 NFL season with his injury.
Whichever team takes him in the draft will have to balance their team’s current needs with the fact that Simmons will not be able to help them in the short term.
It remains to be seen how fall this injury will cause Simmons to drop in the draft.
