The Denver Broncos place the franchise label on the safety of Justin Simmons for the second consecutive season, a source told Adam Schefter from ESPN on Friday.
Simmons, who was ready to become an unrestricted free agent, becomes the first player to be tagged this season. The Broncos now have until July 15 to conclude a long-term deal.
“Justin is one of our core guys and our goal since we got here was to sign him to a long-term deal,” Broncos general manager George Paton said on Thursday. “We’ve had good discussions with his agent. I don’t know if we’re going to close a deal or not, but that’s our goal. He’s the kind of guy we want to expand.”
NFL teams have until March 9 at 4:00 PM ET to place the franchise label on their most valuable player.
Simmons, the Broncos’ choice in the third round of the 2016 draft, played on the franchise player’s label in 2020, worth $ 11.4 million. He finished with 96 approaches and five interceptions. It was the third consecutive season of 90 attacks. He was consistently an active player in defending running along the line of scrimmage, with the versatility to match a variety of players in cover.
Simmons, 27, has a combination of performance on the field and community involvement off the field, having played all the defensive action for each of the last three seasons and was named Broncos nominee last season for Walter Payton. . Man of the Year Award.
When Paton was hired in January, Broncos football president John Elway said trying to sign Simmons again was “one of the biggest things Paton had on his to-do list.”
Simmons has consistently been one of the most active players in the community and one of the team’s leading voices in social justice initiatives.
He won the Darrent Williams Good Guy Award, given by the Denver chapter of Pro Football Writers of America each season to the Broncos player for recognizing professionalism and depth in media interactions. Simmons is the only three-time winner of the award since it began in 2006.
ESPN’s Jeff Legwold contributed to this report.