DeAndre Hopkins Says Giants 'Just Got a Steal' in Isaiah Simmons Trade with Cardinals

Tennessee Titans wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins talked up former Arizona Cardinals teammate Isaiah Simmons on Thursday after the New York Giants acquired him.

The Giants announced Thursday that they traded a 2024 seventh-round draft pick to the Cards for Simmons, who has played the role of a hybrid safety and linebacker during his NFL career.

Hopkins, who was Simmons' teammate from 2020 through 2022, heralded the trade as a "steal" for the G-Men:

The Cardinals selected Simmons with the No. 8 overall pick in the 2020 NFL draft out of Clemson after he racked up a spectacular 67 tackles, 16.5 tackles for loss, eight sacks and three interceptions for the Tigers in 2019.

Simmons was an athletic marvel, but there were question marks regarding whether he would be more of a safety or linebacker in the NFL. The Cardinals struggled to find the answer, but Simmons was still productive in each of the past two seasons.

In 2021, he racked up a career-high 105 tackles to go along with 1.5 sacks and one interception. He followed that up with his best season to date in 2022, recording 99 tackles, four sacks and two picks.

Still, Simmons hasn't lived up to the lofty expectations most had for him when he was a top-10 pick, and the Cardinals declined the fifth-year option in his contract for 2024. That means Simmons is entering a contract year in 2023, and rather than seeing what he can do under those circumstances, Arizona decided to move on.

The Cardinals are clearly in rebuild mode, so trading a 25-year-old player with potential for pennies on the dollars can be viewed as a curious decision.

Arizona's loss may be a huge gain for a Giants team that performed well beyond expectations last season, going 9-7-1 and reaching the playoffs for the first time since 2016.