The Bears didn’t settle for a depth piece or a one-year fix. They went straight for a front-line difference maker.
With the NFL trade deadline approaching, Chicago has pulled off a massive deal to land Tennessee Titans defensive tackle Jeffrey Simmons, according to Tom Pelissero of The Ringer. The price is enormous: two first-round picks and a fourth-rounder going to Tennessee. In return, the Bears get Simmons and a Titans 2028 fifth-round pick.
Pelissero first broke the move Thursday morning, writing, "Blockbuster! The Titans are trading All-Pro DT Jeff Simmons to the Bears, sources tell @ringer @netflixsports," before later laying out the cost: "The Bears are sending two first-round picks and a fourth-rounder to the Titans for Jeff Simmons. A monster deal."
Chicago’s push makes plenty of sense given where the roster stands. The Bears are in the mix for the NFC North, and in a division this crowded, adding a player who can tilt a game up front is a major swing. Simmons is exactly that kind of force.
He arrives as one of the league’s most disruptive interior defenders, and his résumé is loaded. Simmons signed a three-year, $108.5 million extension before the season, has made four Pro Bowls, and has been named First-Team All-Pro once. He’s also still in his prime at 29.
The production is there, too. Through seven games in 2026, Simmons has 4.0 sacks, six tackles for loss, and nine quarterback hits. He’s coming off an 11-sack season in 2025 and has piled up 46.5 sacks since entering the league as a rookie in 2019.
This is the kind of move that tells you Chicago believes the window is open now. Rather than waiting or taking the safer route, Ryan Poles went after one of the best defensive players who could have been available at the deadline and paid the premium to get him. For the Bears, it’s a blockbuster built around urgency and conviction.
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Jermaine Johnson, Tony Pollard and Alontae Taylor have all been mentioned by league sources as potential trade candidates, which keeps Tennessee in the middle of the deadline conversation whether it wants to be or not. Even with the names around the league getting tossed into rumors, the bigger question for the Titans is whether they intend to stand pat or use the coming stretch to reshape the roster before other teams set the pace. [Read more 🡒]
Titans Tight End Plan Is Becoming A Real Brian Daboll Problem
Through seven weeks, the Titans offense has lingered near the bottom of the league in points per game, and the heat has naturally fallen on offensive coordinator Brian Daboll for how little the unit has produced. One of the quieter but increasingly important questions inside that struggle has been the tight end spot, where Tennessee invested in Daniel Bellinger on a three-year deal with hopes he could help stabilize both the pass game and the run game.
Instead, Bellingers impact has been muted, with modest receiving production and uneven blocking grades, and he has not yet formed the kind of complementary pairing with Gunnar Helm that Tennessee probably envisioned. The result is a usage puzzle that keeps circling back to Dabolls play-calling and personnel decisions, because the Titans do not just need more from the position group, they need a clearer answer on how it is supposed to function. [Read more 🡒]
Titans Trade Deadline Talk Just Put Multiple Veterans In Play
With Tennessee sitting at 1-6, the trade deadline conversation around the Titans has shifted from what they might add to what they might be willing to move. ESPN analysts have pegged Jermaine Johnson II, Tony Pollard and Alontae Taylor as names to watch, with each fitting the kind of profile that can draw interest when a team is looking to reshape its roster and stockpile future assets.
Mike Borgonzi is already being linked to a broader rebuild, and the draft-capital angle makes the next few days worth monitoring closely. For a Titans team that needs help in more than one area, the question is less about whether veterans are on the table and more about which ones Tennessee ultimately decides are too useful to move, or too valuable not to consider. [Read more 🡒]