Hello football friends, and welcome to the Thursday edition of the Pick Six newsletter! It might be time to start a newsletter where we ONLY cover big NFL trades, because this week has been crazy, and it's all thanks to the AFC South. Apparently, the bad teams in that division have decided to have a fire sale this week.
The action started on Tuesday with the Colts trading both Quenton Nelson (Seahawks) and DeForest Buckner (49ers), and it continued today with the Titans sending Jeffrey Simmons to Chicago in a blockbuster deal. In a twist, Simmons' first game with the Bears will actually be coming against Nelson and the Seahawks on Monday night. We'll be covering the details of the Simmons trade in today's newsletter, plus we'll have some picks and best bets for tonight's game between the Packers and Panthers.
As always, here's your reminder to tell all of your friends to . To get them signed up, just click here. Let's get to the rundown.
The Bears are officially going all-in on the 2026 season, and we know because they just mortgaged their future to land Jeffrey Simmons from the Titans in a blockbuster trade. Simmons is arguably the best defensive tackle in the NFL right now, and the Bears paid a steep price to get him. That's right, the Bears are sending TWO first-round picks to the Titans to make this deal happen, but that's the price you have to pay to land a player like Simmons.
The 29-year-old is coming off a 2025 season where he earned first-team All-Pro honors. Since the start of last season, he has 15 sacks, which is the most in the NFL for a defensive tackle in that span. For the Bears, this fills a gaping hole on the roster.
Heading into Week 8, they've only gotten one sack on the season from their interior defensive tackles, but that should change as soon as Simmons steps on the field for them. Whenever there's a trade, there's 100% chance we're going to hand out grades for that deal, and that's exactly what we did in this situation. Bryan DeArdo graded the deal, and here's what he came up with: You can read our full story on the Simmons trade here.
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