The Chicago Bears have as strong a case as any NFL team that they're a legitimate Super Bowl contender, and their most recent move has oddsmakers buying into the hype as well. On Thursday, the Bears agreed to a blockbuster trade to acquire Tennessee Titans standout defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons, addressing one of the team's biggest needs.
NFL Network's Ian Rapoport first reported the deal, which will send Simmons and a fifth-round pick in the 2028 NFL Draft to Chicago in exchange for two first-round selections (2027 and 2028) and a 2027 fourth-rounder.
As significant as the move is for the Bears, it also immediately affected their Super Bowl odds, as Ben Fawkes of Yahoo Sports noted. The Bears jumped from 14-1 to 11-1 at BetMGM immediately after
the trade news surfaced, underscoring how impactful Simmons should be for the Bears.
Chicago Bears' Super Bowl odds move from 14-1 to 11-1 at @BetMGM after the Jeffery Simmons deal.
— Ben Fawkes (@BFawkes22) October 29, 2026
➡️Rare for a defensive player to have that big an impact on a team's SB odds
While trades involving high-impact players will unquestionably affect a team's Super Bowl odds, as Fawkes highlights above, it's uncommon for a move to bump the odds up this much. For the Bears, that's a great sign, and it's easy to see why the move had such an impact on the team's Super Bowl outlook.
Simmons is coming off a 2025 campaign in which he was named First-Team All-Pro, and he's also been named Second-Team All-Pro twice and is a four-time Pro Bowler since entering the league as the No. 19 pick in the 2019 NFL Draft.
However, to take an even deeper dive, I asked longtime For The Win writer and die-hard Bears fan Robert Zeglinski, and he summed up just how impactful the move is.
"For all intents and purposes, Jeffery Simmons is the NFL’s best defensive tackle," Zeglinski explained. "He is a one-man matchup problem who demands double-teams and chews them up anyway. On an offensively-focused Bears roster with solid but not great rotational players on their defensive front, Simmons becomes the immediate centerpiece who will lift everyone up like a rising tide.
Simmons will set up more one-on-one matchups for pass-rushers like Montez Sweat and Grady Jarrett, help keep offensive linemen off linebackers T.J. Edwards, D’Marco Jackson, and Devin Bush, and elevate a young, up-and-down secondary. The Bears can play true complementary football now. This is the kind of move that can and very well should elevate Chicago to the top of the NFC for the foreseeable future."
There's no denying that the Bears (5-2) are in a great position to cement themselves as one of the NFC's best teams, and possibly more. Even in the tough NFC North, Chicago currently boasts the third-best record in the conference, and that's with starting quarterback Caleb Williams missing three games due to injury.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: Bears' Jeffery Simmons trade has major impact on Super Bowl odds
