Buccaneers Lineman Calls Out Bears’ Jeffery Simmons for Dirty Play

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers dropped their Sunday Night Football game to the Chicago Bears 27-24, and with that, they were unable to take the outright lead in the NFC South.

The story of the game was Tampa Bay's considerable number of turnovers on defense, getting five off the Bears, and considerable ineptitude on offense. The Bucs only scored 10 points off of five turnovers, and quarterback Baker Mayfield even threw a pick-six that saw Chicago add seven points to the board.

One of the biggest challenges the Bucs faced was Bears defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons, who Chicago acquired right before the trade deadline. But when asked about him after the game, Bucs tackle Luke Goedeke said that some aspects of Simmons' tool kit have "no place" in the game.

Luke Goedeke Voices Thoughts on Jeffery Simmons

Chicago Bears defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons (99) takes the field before the game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Goedeke told ESPN writer Kalyn Kahler that he thought Simmons was both holding too much and also launching himself at his head at various points in the game.

“I mean, you’re holding me on one, you came right at my head,” Goedeke said. “I mean, that’s always fun. He’s known for it on pass pro, just holding the tackle so that the DE can run free, so I got that twice. So that’s always a good one. But, yeah, just kind of going back and forth. I mean, respect the guy, but some of the stuff he can really take out of his game. It’s just kind of old, to be honest.”

Goedeke elaborated further, saying that the tactics Simmons used during the matchup have no "place in the game".

"There's no reason to just come out on a TE and just drill a tackle in the side of the head," Goedeke said. "[There's] really not a place in the game for that, to be honest with you."

This wasn't the only grievance that the Bucs had with the Bears. Quarterback Baker Mayfield also told reporters that the Bears were calling out Tampa Bay's snap counts during the matchup, which should have been enforced as a penalty if that claim were true.

Bucs QB Baker Mayfield says he doesn’t know what went into the O-line having five false starts Sunday night, though he says the last one came about because the Bears were “barking out the cadence,” which you can’t do.

Acknowledges that it’s tough for the refs to call that one,… pic.twitter.com/cMsobPlg1y
— PewterReport 🏴‍☠️ (@PewterReport) November 9, 2026

Goedeke also isn't even the first Bucs lineman who has had some beef with Simmons. When the Bucs and the Tennessee Titans held joint practice together in 2025, and during that practice, lineman Cody Mauch got into with Simmons after a rep against him.

It’s getting chippy early between Bucs-Titans 👀

Cody Mauch and Jeffery Simmons getting after it with one another leading to both teams having some words.

I’ve missed you football. pic.twitter.com/bVCXe9btHd
— Logan B. Robinson (@LogansTwitty) August 7, 2025

Despite all of this, though, the Bucs lost that game against the Bears — and their offense floundered while doing so. Tampa Bay has plenty it needs to figure out over the bye week, and it will certainly need to fix some of its offensive woes when it faces off against the Detroit Lions in Week 11.

The Bucs are 3-6 and half a game out of the NFC South lead. They'll have to string together some wins to take the NFC South, and to do that, the offense simply must be better.

Sign up to our free newsletter and follow us on Facebook, X and Instagram for the latest news.

Add us as a preferred source on Google