Arizona Cardinals: Who to blame for Isaiah Simmons’ limited snap count?

Why are the Arizona Cardinals keeping Isaiah Simmons off of the field?

The Arizona Cardinals took hybrid defender Isaiah Simmons with the eighth overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft. Simmons came into the NFL during an offseason full of unknowns, changes and most importantly, a lack of the typical extensive rookie offseason. This led Simmons to a lack of practice and preseason snaps.

Although this may have affected his availability to start the season at 100%, you would expect by Week 4 of the regular season that a top ten pick would be receiving at least 50% of the defensive snaps for his team.

However, this is not the case after four weeks in the NFL, Simmons has currently only played in 16.5% of the Cardinals defensive snaps according to Football Outsiders. To put that number in perspective there are currently only seven first-round draft picks including Simmons with less than 45% of their teams offensive or defensive snaps.

Those seven draftees include:

Dolphins 5th Pick- Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa (Returning from Injury)- 0% of snaps

Raiders 12th Pick- Wide Receiver Henry Ruggs (Missed two games with Injury) – 33% of snaps

Eagles 21st Pick- Wide Receiver Jalen Reagor (Injured Reserve)- 34.2% of snaps

Packers 26th Pick- Backup Quarterback Jordan Love (Pick 26)- 0% of snaps

Titans 29th Pick- Offensive tackle Isaiah Wilson (Missed two games on the COVID List and was arrested for a DUI)- 0% of snaps

There are only two of the seven that have had no injuries, have not been placed on the COVID list and have seen limited snaps:

Cardinals 8th Pick- Hybrid Linebacker/Safety Isaiah Simmons- 16.5% of snaps

Seahawks 27th Pick- Linebacker Jordyn Brooks- 9.5% of snaps

Simmons not consistently seeing the field is baffling. Why is this happening and who is to blame?