Darrin Simmons

Darrin Simmons is a coach in American football.

Simmons has been the Cincinnati Bengals (National Football League) special teams coach since 2003. Under his tutelage, in the 2005 season, the Cincinnati Bengals got record-breaking performances from their kicking specialists and kickoff returner, plus Top-10 work from the kickoff return and kickoff coverage teams.

In 2003, Simmons’s first Bengals season, his return and coverage units provided a major boost in the punting game. Cincinnati finished 12th in punt return average and 11th in opponents punt return average, following a 2002 season in which the team had finished 31st in returns and 32nd in coverage.

In 2004, Bengals coverage and return teams ranked in the NFL’s top half in three of four areas, topped by a fifth-ranked kickoff coverage team allowing 19.7 yards per return.

Simmons began his NFL coaching career in 1998 on the same Baltimore Ravens staff as Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis. Simmons was assistant special teams coach and assistant strength and conditioning coach for the Ravens in 1998, and he held that same role for the Carolina Panthers from 1999–2002.

A former college punter himself, Simmons played an integral role at Carolina in the continued development of Todd Sauerbrun as one of the NFL’s top punters.

Carolina ranked fourth in the NFL in 2002 in net punting average (37.5), and the Panthers special units led the league in kickoff coverage with only 18.5 yards allowed per return.