Jeffery Simmons Is Set for His Bears Debut on Monday Night in Seattle After the Blockbuster Trade From Tennessee
Chicago paid two first-round picks for the All-Pro defensive tackle — a first for his position in the common draft era — and he practiced Friday, told reporters he will suit up Monday, and carries a league-best 28 pressures among defensive tackles into the game.
The biggest move of the NFL's trade season gets its first Chicago chapter on Monday night. Defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons, dealt from Tennessee to the Bears in the blockbuster trade of Oct. 29, made his practice debut with Chicago on Oct. 30, was introduced at a press conference afterward, and indicated he will suit up when the Bears (5-2) play the Seattle Seahawks (4-3) on Monday, Nov. 2, at 7:15 p.m. on ESPN.
The price underlines what Chicago thinks it bought. The Bears sent Tennessee their 2027 first-round and fourth-round picks and their 2028 first-round pick in exchange for Simmons and a 2028 fifth-round pick — making Simmons, per ESPN, the first defensive tackle in the common draft era, since 1967, to be traded for multiple first-round picks. The eight-year veteran arrives fresh off a career-best 11 sacks in 2025, having agreed with the Titans over the summer to a three-year, $105.8 million extension, and he has generated a league-best 28 pressures among defensive tackles this season, according to NextGen Stats.
Simmons, who told reporters a day before the trade that he wanted to remain in Tennessee, was candid about the whiplash of the move. 'My goal is to always take it day by day and always try to be better than I was the day before, and that's all I'm here to do,' he said after his first Bears practice, adding that he could still feel the emotions of the week and expected them to stay with him until after Monday.
For a Bears defense built around pressure, Monday night is an immediate measuring stick: a road game, in prime time, against a 4-3 Seahawks team — with the new No. 99 in the middle of the line for the first time.
