LAKE FOREST, Ill. (AP) — The trade that sent Jeffery Simmons from the Tennessee Titans to the Chicago Bears told the All-Pro defensive tackle everything he needed to know about his new home.
The Bears have big plans.
“This team believes in what they have here, and they want it right now,” Simmons said. “My game, my passion, my energy, my leadership, I can only help this team even more than what it’s got.”
That's what Chicago general manager Ryan Poles
is counting on after paying a hefty price for the four-time Pro Bowler. The Bears sent their first-round picks in 2027 and 2028, along with a fourth-rounder in next year’s draft, to the Titans on Thursday for Simmons and a fifth-round selection in 2028.
The addition of Simmons inserts a game-wrecker into the middle of what had been a questionable defensive line in Chicago.
The 29-year-old Simmons has four sacks in seven games this season. He topped all defensive tackles with 28 pressures going into Week 8, according to Next Gen Stats. He has an NFL-high 10 pressures after facing a double team, compared to 14 for the rest of the Bears defense combined.
“If you do the research, Super Bowl teams, you go back to 2018, since then they all have what we call a red-level interior defensive lineman,” Poles said Friday. “So in order to get to that, you need one, I really believe that.”
The trade reunites Simmons with fellow defensive lineman Montez Sweat after the two played together for two seasons at Mississippi State. Sweat wears No. 98 with Chicago, so Simmons is switching to No. 99.
Simmons is slated to make his Bears debut Monday night at Seattle. How much he plays depends on how things go in the runup to the primetime game.
“At this point, I’m still trying to catch up with the playbook, get this game plan down, and just trust the process especially with this first week,” he said. “But at the same time, I’m ready to roll. I’m ready to get out there and help this team win football games.”
Chicago is 5-2 after winning its first two games since quarterback Caleb Williams returned from a hamstring injury. It is chasing the undefeated Minnesota Vikings in the NFC North after winning the division last year for the first time since 2018.
Tennessee is off to a 1-6 start, and it hasn’t had a winning record since it went 12-5 in 2021. But Simmons had spent his entire career with the Titans since being drafted in the first round in 2019.
“It’s been a lot of emotions the last couple days," Simmons said. “But today felt great. It felt great to get on the practice field, move around with the guys. Being back with Montez, that was my road dawg at Mississippi State. So I’m excited to be here, I’m excited to be a Chicago Bear.”
The trade created a charged atmosphere at Halas Hall after it was completed. Poles said the team's headquarters “was on fire” on Thursday. Defensive coordinator Dennis Allen said it was “like waking up on Christmas morning and you go out and you see all the presents under the tree.”
Offensive coordinator Press Taylor heard clapping down the hall, and then got a FaceTime call from his brother, Zac, the head coach of the Cincinnati Bengals. Zac had a “huge smile” on his face, Press said.
“I’m like, ‘Thank you. We’re excited,’” Press Taylor said as he looked back on the conversation. “And he’s like, ‘No. We play the Titans this week.’ Oh, so that makes a lot more sense for why you’re excited. And he’s like, ‘Yeah, I’m going to go put in a couple more passes in there.'”
Listed at 6-foot-4 and 305 pounds, Simmons is one of the NFL’s top interior defensive linemen. He was a first-team All-Pro selection last year, when he had a career-high 11 sacks in 15 games. He has 46 1/2 sacks, 31 passes defensed, nine forced fumbles and seven fumble recoveries in 106 career games, including 104 starts.
Poles called Simmons “a multiplier,” with his ability to make life easier on the players around him. His presence likely will create more opportunities for the rest of the team's defensive line, and his pass-rushing skills should help the secondary.
“You’re drawing extra attention. That’s gonna help everybody up front, really help the whole defense,” defensive tackle Grady Jarrett said. “You can kind of dictate protection sometimes where you put people. So I think it’s gonna be super good for just the whole team.”
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