Bears Trade for All-Pro Jeffery Simmons, Giving Up Two First-Round Picks
The Chicago Bears have traded for All-Pro defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons, and the price was two first-round picks. Chicago sent its 2027 and 2028 first-rounders to the Tennessee Titans, along with a 2027 fourth-round pick. Tennessee sent back a 2028 fifth-round selection. ESPN reported the deal on October 29, 2026.
A defensive tackle lines up on the inside of the defensive line, across from the guards, and his main job is to push the quarterback's pocket back toward him. Simmons has four sacks in seven games this season, according to The Guardian. Last year he earned first-team All-Pro honors with a career-high 11 sacks in 15 games. He is a two-time All-Pro and is 29 years old.
Tennessee drafted Simmons 19th overall in 2019, and he spent his whole career with the Titans until now. He signed a record-setting three-year deal with them in June. Trading a player with that kind of résumé usually means a team has decided it is ready to move on from its plan, and the Titans have not given a public reason for this deal beyond the picks they received.
First-round picks are the high-priced tickets of the draft, because they are the first players a team gets to choose each spring. Two of them in a row is a lot of currency to spend on one player. For Chicago, the bet is that a single interior pass rusher can change a defense quickly. Whether that works depends on how Simmons fits into the Bears' front and how quickly he gets comfortable in a new system.
The move also comes with a clock. Chicago is 5-2 after winning two games in a row, and it plays at Seattle on Monday night. The NFL trade deadline is November 10, so the Bears made their move with about two weeks left in the window for deals like this one.
For Bears fans, the next few weeks will show whether a player who had four sacks through seven games can make a bigger difference in a defense that already has winning momentum. For everyone else, it is a reminder of how much a single trade can reshape a roster, even in the middle of a season.
