Inside Chicago’s Massive Gamble for Jeffery Simmons | The Story with Rachel Nichols

Jeffrey Simmons left a lot behind in Tennessee , but didn't take long to show Chicago exactly what he brings.

Hello, I'm Rachel Nichols, and welcome to the story.

You know, for the next 6 days you're going to get a lot of news alerts about the NFL trade deadline.

This deal is being talked about.

That deal might happen, and on and on and on.

Guess what?

I can save everyone some time.

The best move of this deadline has already been made when Chicago took a huge gamble on a huge deal for defensive tackle Jeffrey Simmons, a deal that has already borne so much fruit that in one week Chicago has seen its Super Bowl odds jump from 14.

to 3rd.

Now, if you're not glued to the internet, let me recap for you.

The Bears sent 21st round picks plus a 4th rounder to Tennessee, all in exchange for Simmons.

No team in the modern draft era had ever handed over 21st round picks for a defensive tackle.

Two firsts, it's like a franchise quarterback price.

And also Simmons is already 29.

Honestly, the Titans themselves were shocked at the offer.

It was so audacious.

And his general manager Mike Borgonzi put it, it was just too good.

To pass up.

It also helped that he knew the guy across the table.

In fact, 17 years ago, he and Bears GM Ryan Poles were two young Chiefs scouts sharing an apartment in Kansas City with a young coach named Nick Siriani living downstairs.

A lesson, I guess, on being a good roommate and clearing the dishes out of the sink because you never know when it will all circle back around down the road.

Still, even with all that, the Titans brass did take a pause before actually trading Simmons, who had become an integral.

Part of not just the team, but the community.

And after the deal was done, Simmons' old teammates paid tribute appropriately.

You see, Simmons always wears bright colored long sleeves under his jersey because he says it helps his 3 year old daughter pick him out on the field.

So on Sunday, several Titans defenders wore bright sleeves in his honor.

Very sweet.

Although also, let's not kid ourselves.

Simmons wouldn't have moved for this much unless in addition to being a force in the locker room, he was also a force on the field.

Which he certainly was on Monday Night Football this week.

Simmons had been a Bear for roughly 4 days when he stepped onto the field against the defending Super Bowl champion Seahawks in Seattle.

But boy did he have himself a night.

1 sack, 6 tackles, a batted pass.

Seattle's coaching staff tried to stop the bleeding by double teaming him 13 times, but all that meant was more room for the rest of the defense to take advantage.

And here is my favorite stat of the night.

On the 48 plays Simmons was on the field for, the Seahawks averaged 3 yards a play.

On the 8 plays he sat out, they averaged 13.

Sam Darnold completed less than half his passes with Simmons out there, but he went 5 for 5 with a touchdown when Simmons wasn't, which I guess is a pretty strong argument for never letting the man sit down again.

So what does this mean going forward?

The Bears are 6-2, 2nd in the NFC North behind Minnesota, but that could easily.

Flip in the next few weeks.

This weekend, Chicago plays Tampa on Sunday Night Football, and they're already a 6 point favorite.

So sure, the next 6 days until the trade deadline will bring some deals, and a couple of them might even matter.

But as I keep getting all those breathless notifications, I want to remind everyone the trade that actually changes the playoff picture, it's already happened.

And if you want to know what it looks like, it's the guy in the bright sleeves in the other team's backfield.

All right, let's get over to the Raiders, where owner Mark Davis just went on CNBC to talk about the most popular backup quarterback in America, which of course makes him only the 4,0006th person this week to talk about Fernando Mendoza and whether he should be already starting or not, because in case you've somehow escaped this debate, you should know that Las Vegas has taken an interesting path here.

The The usual routine for a team so bad to earn the first overall pick is to throw that guy right into the fire, especially if he's an elite Heisman winning national championship winning guy like Mendoza.

But in this case, the Raiders also went out and got veteran Kirk Cousins.

And then they handed him the starting job.

I was very vocal at the time about how much I loved that move.

Not only was Cousin.

Already very familiar with the style of offense the team's new head coach wanted to run, that gives veterans on the team a lot of confidence.

He's also one of the nicest guys on the planet .

It's pretty rare that an older QB is at least somewhat possessive or stingy about teaching a rookie who will most certainly at some point take his job, but Cousins has been the opposite, teaching Mendoza every step of the way.

And Mendoza sitting and waiting his turn has another advantage.

Guess who now has extra time to spend with his personal quarterbacks coach?

Tom Brady.

Not a Tom Brady video, the actual Tom Brady, the guy with, you know, 7 Super Bowl rings, who also owns a piece of the Raiders.

Take a listen to Mendoza describing his experience there.

What he said is, as a quarterback, you need to be the most everything, to be the most competitive, you need to be the most leader.

Like, you know, you need to have the most leadership.

You need to be the toughest.

You know, mentally and physically.

And you got to embody all these things and lead by example before gaining that equity and respect by your teammates in order to lead effectively.

And so that really resonated with me and the other quarterbacks.

So there you go, straight from the rookie's mouth.

And Davis made it clear in that appearance that while he's thrilled with what's happening, he also knows he's got a lot of people asking questions.

He's not one of them.

He said there is absolutely no pressure for me to start the guy.

What's However, Davis said he also remembers the 1960s, when quarterbacks sometimes sat for years, and how nowadays he sees rookies who may play OK, but never learn the footwork and the other details , and how that can limit them the whole rest of their careers.

Meanwhile, he said he's watched guys like Brady, who was famously a backup first, or Aaron Rodgers, who sat for three years behind Brett Favre, or Patrick Mahomes, who watched from the sideline his first year, except.

Throwaway game at the end of the season, or Drew Brees, who did the same.

Between them, that group has 13 Super Bowl ranks.

So you know, not bad.

That path seems to work.

And Mendoza isn't just following in their footsteps.

He's actually going a step further on game days.

Mendoza stands on the sideline wearing a helmet, not a headset, not a ball cap, the full helmet , because that's how the play calls come in, and he wants to hear everything.

Cousins hears.

He repeats each call out loud to quarterbacks coach Mike Sullivan, talks through the defense that he sees, and goes through his reads on every snap.

So no, I don't need to see Fernando Mendoza take even one starter snap this year because he's already getting every rep that matters from 30 yards away in a helmet with Tom Brady in his corner.

So the rest of us, all 4,006 folks chiming in, we can wait.

All right, I want to finish up with the NBA where tonight the Miami Heat are in Los Angeles to play the Clippers, and the question hanging over this team, it's not whether Giannicentopo has boosted its offense, it's whether anyone in a Heat uniform can stop anybody, because so far it hasn't been pretty, and it certainly hasn't been what anyone expected when the Heat traded a boatload of players and picks to get.

This summer, the thinking was simple.

Pair a former Defensive Player of the Year with Bam Adebayo, a six-time all defensive pick, and the defense would hold everything up while the offense figured itself out.

Instead, the Heat are 2 and 5 with a defense that is sitting 27th out of 30 teams.

Opponents are making 17 3 pointers a game.

Look, that is the most in the NBA.

And even worse, they're hitting 41% of them, which only Phoenix is worse at.

The Heat are also giving up almost 124 points a night, and the stars have been feasting.

I was in the building the other night when the Heat played the Lakers.

Luca notched 42 points and 13 assists, while overall the Lakers shot 57%, made 19 threes, and hit 79 points by halftime.

Now Giannis was clearly upset.

After that game, I checked in with him right after the final buzzer.

He was vibrating.

He could barely speak.

And it took him another 90 minutes to meet the media in an otherwise empty locker room.

And while his comments about Luca being one of the best scorers in NBA history was what later got the headlines, his words about why the Heat defense was struggling, well, those were way more important.

We're not playing hard enough.

We got to play hard, you know, we got.

You know, I have some pride.

Gotta have some pride, individual pride, first of all, and then, uh, we've got to keep one another accountable trust one another defensively.

Right now we don't trust one another.

I'm gonna give you that extra effort.

Giannis then mapped it out.

He said, when we see a Miami player not close out all the way on a shooter like Luca, it's because he doesn't believe the man behind him has his back.

So he goes halfway, and a halfway close out on Luka Doncic is just a very polite way of handing him a 3.

Bam put it a little differently, but he landed in the same place.

Nobody's gonna say this shit.

You gotta do that about this hole, and obviously, you know, we, we get tired of touching that hot stove and that.

We're gonna figure it out.

I'll say this for these guys, at least they're telling the truth.

There's a version of a 2 and 5 team where everybody says it's early, the shots will fall.

This isn't that.

Instead, everyone here is freely admitting that a roster with this many good individual defenders should not be keeping statistical company with the Suns and the Bulls, which brings us to tonight.

The.

The Clippers are 1 and 6 and their offense ranks 24th in the league.

If effort and trust are really the problem, this is the night the Heat should be able to build some of that.

5 losses in, we will find out whether they can finally back away from that stove, because here at Sports Illustrated, the games may end, but the stories don't.

I'm Rachel Nichols.

Thanks for watching the story.

We'll see you tomorrow.