Giants’ Isaiah Simmons ready to square off against ex-teammates

This Sunday, the New York Giants travel to Glendale, Arizona to face the Arizona Cardinals. It’s the first of two games in a five-day span as the Giants visit San Francisco on Thursday night before returning home to East Rutherford.

Their first stop pits linebacker Isaiah Simmons against the team he left less than a month ago.

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“Not letting any external factors of like revenge or anything like that come in the way of the game,” Simmons told reporters this week. “(But I’m) not an emotionless person, so I’m sure there will be some emotions flowing through me but nothing that’s going to affect me and make me do anything crazy.”

The Cardinals selected Simmons in the first round of the 2020 NFL draft but traded him to the Giants for a seventh-round pick in August. Replacing him is safety K’Von Wallace, whom the Cardinals picked up off of waivers from the Philadelphia Eagles a week after trading Simmons.

“That’s little bro,” Cardinals safety Budda Baker said. “He’s not really a teammate of ours this week so it won’t be much of anything until after the game. Love ’em, but at the end of the day he’s a Giant and that’s who we are going against. There won’t be many words until after the game.”

Simmons will most definitely have heightened emotions playing against his former team, as do many players who have tense exits with previous teams, but he seems to have the right attitude for now.

The Cards may portray viewing him as an opponent, but they will likely have their own emotions to deal with.