Josh
Simmons.
Josh
Simmons.
Ohio State· 6'5"· 317 lb
"Fluid, light-footed blindside protector who wins with range and recovery quickness rather than raw mass — a wide-zone left tackle whose mirror and reach-block athleticism made him the cleanest pure pass-set athlete of the class before injury shortened the tape."Pre-draft read
He plays left tackle with airy, connected feet and a smooth, repeatable kick slide, opening without false steps and eating up the arc against speed. He resets his base to mirror counters rather than lunging. His hands are timed and independent, striking inside to stall the long-arm and resetting off swipes, while his eyes stay level to pass off games and pick up late loopers without panic. He exhibits recovery speed, regaining the pocket edge before a rush turns the corner even when beaten by a half step.
In the run game, he excels on reach and climb assignments, covering the outside shade and reaching the second level with body control. He finishes with position rather than violence. His anchor is functional but leverage-dependent; long bull rushes force him to sit and slide rather than stone-wall.
Shanahan-style outside/wide zone offense with play-action boots, where a left tackle must reach shades, climb clean and hold long-developing edge sets.
Year 1: plug-and-play blindside starter in a zone-based scheme with chip help on elite power rushers. Ceiling: top-10 pass-protecting left tackle who lets an offense leave him on an island every snap.
A heavy gap/duo, downhill power run scheme that asks him to displace 330-pound nose shades off the ball and win with pure mass at the point of attack.
Value spikes in a movement-based offense; it flattens in a maul-first system that grades tackles on knockdowns.
OT Josh Simmons, Ohio State — 2025 NFL Draft All-22 film session
All-22 breakdown of his pass sets, hand timing and reach blocks at left tackle.
Josh Simmons: big, smooth and fast — the secret weapon at LT
Brian Baldinger on his movement skills, arc range and climb work in the run game.
Josh Simmons college highlights — Ohio State left tackle
Condensed 2023-24 Ohio State reel of pass protection reps and second-level finishes.
Josh Simmons projects as an athletic wide-zone left tackle, offering a team a high-level pass protector with the foot quickness and body control to excel in space. His ability to cover the arc against speed rushers and recover quickly to re-anchor makes him an immediate asset in protecting the quarterback's blindside.
Simmons made 13 starts at San Diego State before transferring to Ohio State, where he started 13 more games at left tackle in 2023 for a national-title contender. In 2024, he played six dominant games at left tackle, earning third-team All-Big Ten honors before a torn patellar tendon ended his season in October. He consistently faced and handled playoff-level edge rushers, demonstrating elite pass-set athleticism.
Evaluators considered Simmons a first-round talent, with consensus placing him in the top 15 based on tape, while medical concerns regarding his knee injury and the limited 2024 sample raised questions. He was ultimately drafted as the 32nd overall pick by the Kansas City Chiefs, with teams weighing his elite upside against the recovery timeline and questions about his ability to anchor true power.
- 01
Elite pass-set athleticism
smooth, repeatable kick slide with no false steps, covering the arc against speed without overextending and staying square through the top of the rush.
- 02
Recovery quickness
even when a rusher wins the first step, he regains the pocket edge and re-anchors before the corner is turned, converting would-be pressures into stalemates.
- 03
Independent, well-timed hands
inside strike to kill the long-arm, quick reset off swipes and chops, and enough grip strength to steer a rusher past the depth of the quarterback.
- 04
Zone-run range
reaches outside shades and climbs to linebackers with body control, sustaining on the move rather than diving at the second-level target.
- 05
Processing and eye discipline
passes off games, identifies the late looper on twists and communicates through stunts without losing his own assignment.
- 01
Medical is the headline
a torn patellar tendon in October 2024 ended his season, capped his testing and forced teams to project both the timeline and the long-term explosiveness off that knee.
- 02
Anchor is leverage-dependent
sustained bull rushes from heavy interior-to-edge power force him to sit and slide rather than stone-wall, and he can get walked back when his pads rise.
- 03
Play strength at the point of attack
more positional blocker than displacer in gap and duo concepts; he covers defenders up but rarely knocks them off the line of scrimmage.
- 04
Thin sample of premium tape
only 19 games as a Power Four left tackle, six of them in 2024, which left evaluators projecting from a limited body of high-level work.
— — — positional median (p50)
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| Yr | Team | G |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | San Diego State | 13 |
| 2023 | Ohio State | 13 |
| 2024 | Ohio State | 6 |
| Career | — | 32 |
Offensive linemen do not accrue box-score statistics; games and starts shown. Simmons was a reserve at San Diego State in 2021 before starting every game in 2022, then transferred to Ohio State.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Honors
- CFP national champion (2024, Ohio State)
- Third-team All-Big Ten (2024)
- 32 career starts across San Diego State and Ohio State
Zone-scheme left tackle who protects at a high level and is functional rather than dominant as a run displacer.
Same fluid, technique-first pass-set profile — an offense-defining blindside protector if the knee holds.
Talented mover whose availability and lower-body health cap him as a streaky, oft-missing starter.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Kansas City traded back one spot with Philadelphia, picked up a fifth-rounder (No. 164) and still landed the tackle they had targeted, ending a multi-year search for a real answer on Patrick Mahomes' blindside. Simmons rehabbed the patellar tendon through the offseason and won the left tackle job outright, starting the Chiefs' first five games of 2025 and grading out as one of the better pass-protecting rookie tackles in the league — Pro Football Focus charted him at 75.5 in pass blocking, well above his 48.1 run-blocking mark, which mirrored the college scouting report almost exactly.
He was then ruled out for Weeks 6 through 9 for personal reasons involving his family, returned to the lineup, and suffered a dislocated and fractured wrist against Dallas in Week 13; Kansas City placed him on injured reserve on December 3, 2025.
The rookie ledger reads eight games, eight starts — a small sample that confirmed the pass-protection projection while leaving the durability question open. Entering 2026 he is the penciled-in starting left tackle, and the evaluation now hinges on availability rather than ability.
Data note: Offensive linemen do not accrue box-score statistics; games and starts shown. Simmons was a reserve at San Diego State in 2021 before starting every game in 2022, then transferred to Ohio State.