Broncos’ Justin Simmons the most athletic rookie safety?

Denver Broncos rookie safety Justin Simmons earned the highest SPARQ score of any player at his position this year…

When the Denver Broncos made the final selection of the third round in the 2016 NFL Draft, I don’t think people realize what a special talent they got in safety Justin Simmons.

Simmons was a team leader and incredibly productive playmaker for the Boston College program, playing every game of his career and starting every game over the last two seasons. He posted 229 tackles and eight interceptions over that timeframe, proving his versatility on special teams as well as defensively, playing corner and safety.

What’s special about Simmons, in addition to his versatility, is his insane athletic ability. We talked after the draft about how well Simmons tested at the Scouting Combine, despite not running the fastest 40-yard dash time among his peers at defensive back. In fact, he didn’t even come close.

Where he blew everyone else away was, well, in every other category. Simmons did so well, that he graded out as this year’s top SPARQ athlete, a metric formerly used by Nike, now kept alive by Three Sigma Athlete.

Using a variety of athletic measurable factors, Simmons tested better than nearly 99 percent of safeties currently in the NFL. Their metrics indicate Simmons ran a 4.53 at 6-2, 202 pounds with a 40-inch vertical jump, a 10.5-foot broad jump, an unearthly 6.58 three-cone time, a 3.85 second short shuttle, and 16 bench press reps.

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It’s not difficult to see why Simmons was the top ranked safety in the class, more than two standard deviations above his peers now in the NFL.

We’ll get more in-depth on this as the offseason progresses, but the Broncos were pretty clear about identifying players who were high on these lists throughout the draft, but Simmons is unquestionably the most athletic player the team drafted.

That kind of athleticism mixed with his versatility as a football player seems to indicate that he’s got a better than decent chance of being a big time contributor as a rookie in this star-studded defense.