The Chicago Bears acquired All-Pro defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons from the Tennessee Titans on Thursday, October 29, in the biggest trade of the deadline season. Chicago sends its first-round picks in 2027 and 2028 and a fourth-round pick in 2027 to Tennessee, and receives Simmons and a fifth-round pick in 2028 in return, in a deal the teams announced Thursday and that remains pending a physical.
The price is the story as much as the player. Simmons is the first defensive tackle in the common draft era, which dates to 1967, to be traded for multiple first-round picks, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter. No interior defensive lineman has ever cost this much draft capital in a trade, and Chicago paid it for a 29 year old who signed a three year, $105.8 million extension with Tennessee only months ago, a deal that keeps him under contract through 2030.
A Record Price For An Interior Lineman
Trades of this size are usually reserved for quarterbacks, edge rushers and number one receivers. The last time Chicago itself gave up two first-round picks was the 2018 trade for Khalil Mack, and that was for an edge rusher in his prime. Simmons now joins that tier from the inside of the line, a position teams have historically believed they could fill more cheaply than almost any other on defence.
The numbers explain why Chicago broke the pattern. Simmons has 46.5 sacks, nine forced fumbles and 72 tackles for loss across his career with Tennessee, which drafted him in the first round in 2019. He earned first team All-Pro honours for the first time last season after a career high 11 sacks, he is a four time Pro Bowl selection and a five time team captain, and he has four sacks and 38 tackles through seven games this season. ESPN noted he owns a 27 percent pass rush win rate as a defensive tackle this season, the highest rate in the NFL in 2026.
It was hard. I thanked him for everything he’s done here, on and off the field. It’s a really hard conversation. It’s also a great opportunity for him too, as I told him. To go someplace here and have an opportunity to compete now for a Super Bowl.
That was Titans general manager Mike Borgonzi, who told reporters on Thursday that Simmons did not want to leave the franchise. Borgonzi said the trade came together late on Wednesday night after a call from Bears general manager Ryan Poles, a former colleague from their time together in Kansas City, and that the compensation was simply too good to pass up. Only a day earlier, Simmons had stood in the Tennessee locker room and said that, as far as he knew, he was going to be in Tennessee.
Chicago Goes All In At 5-2
The Bears are 5-2 and second in the NFC North, trailing only the unbeaten Minnesota Vikings, and this trade is a clear statement that the front office believes the window is open right now. Chicago’s defence already ranks in the top ten in both yards and points allowed, and its sack leaders before the trade were defensive lineman Austin Booker and defensive back Kyler Gordon, with four each. Simmons matches that team leading total on his own and does it from the interior, collapsing pockets in a way that makes every edge rusher beside him more dangerous.
There is also a reunion built into the move. Simmons will line up alongside defensive end Montez Sweat, his former teammate at Mississippi State, where both were first-round picks in the 2019 draft. Chicago travels to Seattle for a Monday night game against the Seahawks next, and whether Simmons is ready for that game or needs a week to settle, his arrival changes the maths for every offence on the Bears schedule from here to January, starting with a division race that also includes a Thanksgiving night meeting with Kansas City later in the season.
Tennessee Takes The Draft Capital And Rebuilds
For the Titans, the logic runs the other way. Tennessee is 1-6, on course for another poor season after back to back 3-14 finishes, and already sits near the top of the 2027 draft order. The trade gives the Titans two first-round picks in 2027, their own and Chicago’s, plus another first-rounder in 2028, premium capital for a roster that needs young talent in volume rather than one expensive star in his prime.
The cost is real and immediate. Simmons played 86.6 percent of Tennessee’s defensive snaps, and the Titans will turn to a rotation led by veterans Solomon Thomas and John Franklin-Myers to fill the interior. The move also leaves Tennessee carrying significant dead money from the extension it signed only months ago, a reminder that the franchise changed direction fast once the season slipped away. Borgonzi had called Simmons a pillar of the franchise when the extension was signed. Four months later, that pillar brought back the kind of return that can reshape a rebuild, and the November 10 trade deadline may not be done with either team yet.
