Trenton Simpson should be seen as a first round NFL draft pick

Trenton Simpson played a couple of linebacker positions this past year as the Clemson defense evolved.

by Ariana Pensy - Correspondent - Wed Jan 18 07:00:06 GMT-04:00 2023

CLEMSON - Clemson has put a number of defensive players into the NFL. Isaiah Simmons has been making quite the impact for the Arizona Cardinals, while Christian Wilkins is a powerful force for the Miami Dolphins and Dexter Lawrence and Shaq Lawson are among the defenders going into the divisional round in the playoffs. In the 2023 NFL draft talk, all of the talk has been around Myles Murphy and Bryan Bresee. While this is understandable given their talent, perhaps more attention should be given to linebacker Trenton Simpson.

Simpson has been with the Tigers for three years. In his time at Clemson, he played 37 games and recorded 12.5 sacks and 28 tackles for loss. He also excelled academically, earning his major in Sports Communication back in December of 2022. However, there was a decrease in his stats from his 2021 season to his 2022 season. Back in 2021, he recorded a total of 31 pressures resulting in 11 quarterback hurries, 13 quarterback hits, and seven sacks. While he still recorded 11 quarterback hurries in 2022, those only resulted in three quarterback hits and 2.5 sacks. Furthermore, two of those sacks came in Clemson’s defensive domination against Miami when they won 40-10.

Despite the lower defensive figures, he was still a 2022 Butkus Award semifinalist, as well as a Lott IMPACT Trophy semifinalist. The Butkus Award is presented to the top linebacker at the collegiate level, while the Lott IMPACT Trophy is presented to the top defensive player in college that shows integrity, maturity, performance, academics, community and tenacity. He was also named third-team All-ACC and was a member of the first-team All-ACC team in 2021.

Coming into the draft, according to NFL Draft Buzz, he is ranked as the No. 33 overall player in the draft and No. 5 among linebackers. However, he is distinct in the fact that he is incredibly fast, posting a 4.39-second 40-yard dash, which ranks in the No. 99 percentile among linebackers. His hand size ranks in the No. 94 percentile, wingspan in the No. 83 percentile, height in the No. 82 percentile, weight in the No. 50 percentile, and arm size in the No. 39 percentile. He is big in size and can use his size in tandem with his speed to be an effective linebacker.

His greatest strengths are seen in his quick change-of-direction ability. He also possesses sideline-to-sideline range due to his speed. NFL Draft Buzz also says that he is a great tackler in space. While his big plays are typically as a result of his aggressiveness, sometimes he can be over-aggressive and overrun the play. This is something that is coachable and there are a lot worse weaknesses for a linebacker to have. He does also need to improve a little bit in man coverage, but again this is something that is teachable and the severity of this depends more on the coaching philosophy of the team he goes to. If he plays for a team that uses a lot of zone, then this is probably not as big of a deal.

There are numerous projections about what team Simpson could end up on. CBS Sports acknowledges Simpson’s talent the most, with two of their analysts, Chris Trapasso and Josh Edwards, having him getting drafted in the first round. Trapasso has him selected No. 18 overall by the Detroit Lions, while Edwards has him going No. 14 overall to the New England Patriots.

The one thing that could really hurt his potential for getting drafted in the first round, even though he is first-round talent, is that there isn’t a single team in the NFL assessed by analysts that their No. 1 need is a linebacker. It is the No. 2 need for the New York Jets; their pick is No. 13 overall so they could draft Simpson if they want to. They also don’t have a lot of money in their salary cap as of right now, which means that they probably want to address their biggest needs in the NFL draft.

Some of the other teams that are looking for a linebacker are the Dallas Cowboys, Denver Broncos and the New York Giants. Dallas is in a similar situation to the Jets in that they do not have a lot of salary cap room, and they are probably giving their quarterback Dak Prescott a big deal so they will really need to use the draft to address their needs. For the Broncos, their salary cap is restrained by their contract with Russell Wilson. The Giants have more salary cap room, so they may address their need for a linebacker in free agency instead of the draft, which makes it less likely that they will pursue Simpson. Nonetheless, he will certainly get drafted at a high position in the NFL draft.