The Chicago Bears debuted defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons on Monday against the Seattle Seahawks and he was an immediate difference-maker. The task in Week 9 and moving forward is finding ways to get even more out of him.
The Chicago Bears unboxed their shiny new toy on Monday night when defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons made his debut against the Seattle Seahawks, fresh off the blockbuster trade that sent him to Chicago from the Tennessee Titans.
Simmons was an immediate game-changer
for the Bears' defense in his first game. Not only was he all over the place on the stat sheet, he also opened things up and made the job easier for the rest of the unit. Which is exactly what the Bears knew they were getting out of him when they made this trade.
The thing is, no one expected to see THAT level of impact so soon. Simmons led all Bears defensive linemen with 55 snaps on Monday night and there was a clear difference when he was out there compared to when he was on the sideline. Now, Simmons has had a full week to digest more of this scheme and his growing role within it.
Simmons led all defensive linemen with 55 defensive snaps against Seattle.
6 total tackles (tied for a team-high)
1 sack (5.0 sacks on the season, tied for 3rd among interior defenders)
3 total pressures (27 pressures on the season, 4th among interior defenders)
2 tackles for a loss (8 TFLs on the season, 3rd among interior defenders)
It's just now been a week since Simmons first arrived to Chicago and he's already been the talk of the entire town. Going into his debut game at Soldier Field on Sunday night, there's even more that the Bears are excited to unleash with him.
"It's been good. I think he raises the level of everybody on the field," defensive coordinator Dennis Allen told reporters on Thursday. "That's a positive thing. I think we certainly felt his impact in this (last) game and excited about what I think he can do for us as we keep going in the future."
Playing as much as he did on Monday was a credit to Simmons and who he is as a professional. He spent hours on hours between Thursday and Monday getting prepared for that game and the results of that work paid off. Now that he's had a full week here and gotten some action, Allen can start getting more creative with how he uses him.
"I really don't feel like we were handcuffed very much in terms of what we could do and what we could call," Allen added. "This guy is a consummate professional. I mean, he was on his stuff, knew exactly what to do… It was good to see and certainly as we have a full opportunity to gameplan, there's some different things that we can potentially do trying to help put him in a position where he could really create some stuff for us."
The Bears have some changes to account for up-front going into this game. Kentavius Street was placed on the IR with a knee injury and Grady Jarrett is currently dealing with a groin injury. So, that's a key issue to account for at the position. If Jarrett isn't able to do, the Bears are going to ask even more out of Simmons leading the position as well. And it's certainly something he's capable of.
"I think that's always the ultimate compliment you can give a player is when you are elevating the people around you. And he does that," head coach Ben Johnson said. "He does that on a play-by-play basis. I think we'll be able to continue to sink into that during the week as well. It's a long season and yet I think he's going to be one of those guys. Even you come in on a Wednesday, not everyone's feeling great and he's going to be able to provide some juice there also. So I'm excited to have him."
This article was originally published on A to Z Sports. Read the full story here: Jeffery Simmons exceeded expectations in his Bears debut and Chicago will have even more to unleash out of him in Week 9
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