Jeffery Simmons told reporters Wednesday he had zero expectation of being traded during the 2026 season, but things just went 0-to-100 real quick: he’s officially a Chicago Bear. The Titans shipped Simmons out on Thursday in a blockbuster deal that brought a pair of first-round picks back to Tennessee, a move that left a lot of people, including Simmons himself, reeling.
The Call That Changed Everything For the Titans’ Future
Titans General Manager Mike Borgonzi held a press conference to explain how this came together, and let me tell you, it was a wild story. Borgonzi flat-out said he never *planned* to trade Simmons. He’s fielded calls about Simmons more than once since he took the GM job, but none of those past talks ever felt right. Not until Wednesday night. That’s when Ryan Poles, the Bears’ GM whom Borgonzi has known “for a while,” made the call. And Poles didn’t mess around. According to Borgonzi, Poles was “really the only person who came out and said ‘would you accept this?’” You gotta appreciate that directness, right? When someone lays it all out like that, it forces your hand.
Why Two First-Rounders Was The Deal The Titans Couldn’t Refuse
Borgonzi knew he had to “take in all the information at that point.” And what was that info? He talked about “where we are as a team” and how to “really sustain success in the future.” That’s the cold, hard reality of the NFL, isn’t it? Sometimes, you have to make tough calls for the long game. Those two first-round picks were clearly the game-changer. After speaking with Titans owner Amy Adams Strunk on Thursday morning, the deal was done. Then Borgonzi had the unenviable task of telling Simmons, who, just like “a lot of people,” was completely surprised by the news. It’s a shocking move, but getting two first-round picks? That’s a massive haul for a team looking to build.
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Originally reported by Pro Football Talk.
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