Albert Breer on Simmons Traded to Bears, Packers’ Big Win and Lamar Jackson vs. Josh Allen

Tennessee Titans have traded their best player. All right, welcome in. It's the Brewer Report for Friday, October the 30th. Week eight is now underway, and it starts with the Green Bay Packers beating the Carolina Panthers at Lambeau Field, a celebratory night, a great week in Wisconsin. The Badgers beat USC on Saturday. The Brewers win the World Series. And now the Packers are victorious on a night when they were able to celebrate the Brewers who came from Florida with the Commissioner's Trophy. And I'll tell you what, watching the Packers tonight, you can see the imperfections. You can see that they're not all the way there yet, but you can also start to see the ceiling for the team and start to see where the team could go. Now, let's start with some of the issues that they have. And I think it really... At this point, almost begins and ends with the running game. They do have Josh Jacobs back. However, that hasn't made all that much of a difference. The running game is still one of the worst in football. They have not gotten to 500 yards yet, and that's through eight games. They're now five and three. Their rushing totals by game over the course of this year. 66, 63, 70, 17, 86, 70, 57, 60, and tonight, 66. The offensive line has its issues. The offensive line has its injuries. You would hope that with Josh Jacobs back, they can work that out. Another issue on offense has been some of the issues they've had with drops, in particular Matthew Golden, who's shown real high-end potential. But there have been some critical drops. Tucker Kraft is working his way back, and you're starting to see the explosiveness. As you start to put these pieces together and then you look on the defensive side of the ball and they had nine quarterback hits, they had six sacks. Danny Dennis Sutton, the rookie out of Penn State, had two sacks. Devonte Wyatt had another two sacks. Lucas Van Ness had another sack. You just start to put all the pieces together and there are young guys on defense like Dennis Sutton, like Brandon Cisse at corner, starting to come around and play bigger roles. And they're going to get Micah Parsons back. And so, again, you start to put this all together. And if Josh Jacobs in the run game can come around, and if Matthew Golden can start hanging on to the ball a little more consistently, and if Micah Parsons is in there and healthy again, and now you have Wyatt, and you have Van Ness, and you have Dennis Sutton, you're starting to see where this team is looking like a real contender. And the amazing thing is they came into this game at 4-3. And all by themselves in the basement of the NFC North. And so the race in the NFC North is going to be heated the rest of the way. The Packers move to five and three. That virtually pulls them even with the Detroit Lions, who are at four and two. Of course, they lost two on Sunday. The Bears are sitting there at five and two. We'll get to them in a second. They, of course, made a big move on Thursday. And then the Vikings, of course, at six and oh, going into week eight. It should be, again, like really high-end competition the rest of the year. On Sunday, you got the Vikings and the Lions going head-to-head. The Lions, of course, trying to deal the Vikings their first loss. And we will have the Chicago Bears on Sunday night. Again, we'll get back to them in a second or a Monday night. I'm sorry. I'm going up against the Seattle Seahawks. So the, the Packers keep pacing the NFC North. And again, I think the Packers are starting to show their ceiling as for the Panthers. They've leveled off. And. You know, now, again, it looks like things are wide open in the NFC South. The Falcons are idle tonight, of course, as are 30 of the other teams. And they pull even with the Panthers at 3-4 atop the NFC South. And just a game back now, at 2-5, you have both the New Orleans Saints and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. That division has been that way the last couple of years, and maybe it's a division where you only need eight or nine wins. Certainly this wasn't a crippling loss for the Panthers, but not great. You saw some of the offensive line deficiencies at the end of the game. They had a real problem protecting. Um, protecting Bryce, you know, against a Packers front that again, still doesn't have Micah Parsons. Our second topic and the biggest news of Thursday of this week, really the biggest news that we've had since the start of the regular season, the Tennessee Titans have traded their best player, all pro defensive tackle, Jeffrey Simmons, and the 2028 fifth round pick to the Chicago Bears. For a 2027 first-round pick, a 2027 fourth-round pick, and a 2028 first-round pick. Now, for the Titans, this does make some sense. I think you look at their roster, they're still a ways off. It's probably going to be a couple years before they're a real contender. And Jeffrey Simmons is going to turn 30 next year. So your question is, if you're able to build the way that you hope you can build, and you're contending in 28 and 29, at that point, what does Jeffrey Simmons have left? And this is a player, by the way, that they've consistently gotten calls on since Mike Borgonzi became the general manager in January of 2025, since Robert Saleh became the head coach in January. The difference this time around is they were dealing with a team they could really trust in that Ryan Poles, the general manager in Chicago, and Borgonzi have known each other forever. They worked together at Boston College. In 2007 and 2008, they went to the Chiefs together. In 2009, they worked together within the Chiefs organization, rose up the ranks on the scouting side. Over 13 seasons before Poles got the Bears job in 22, Ran Neukandt leaves three years later to take the Titans job. Trust was important here because this was something they had to keep quiet. This thing started to come together on Wednesday after the Titans practice. Got a call from Poles, Ran Neukandt did. They started to discuss the potential framework of a deal. They talked again at about seven o'clock on Wednesday night. That was when they came to a soft agreement on the deal. They both had to go to their coaches. They both had to go to their owners. They had to talk things through on that end. And I'll have more detail on that in the mmqb.com on Friday morning. They continued to talk through and work through that. And, you know, really for the Titans, what it came down to was they were able to get. The sort of haul that's going to allow for them to put another six to 10 really good young players on the roster if they can make some good decisions here over the course of the next couple of years. You're going to have the three picks, which you could turn into more picks. You're also clearing a bunch of cap space, which allows you to pursue other players. So this is going to give them the chance to build out. And one thing the Titans did do ahead of this is that they studied teams that were able to accelerate their rebuilds. And so many of them happen through trades like this. If you go back and you look at the Detroit Lions, the Matthew Stafford trade helped supercharge The Houston Texans. We're able to build a generational type of defense as a result of the Deshaun Watson trade. The Seattle Seahawks were able to really reset and build the champion that they are now in part through the Russell Wilson trade. And more recently, you see what the Browns have been able to do. And that wasn't even a quarterback trade. That was the Travis Hunter trade. They've been able to get a lot younger over the last couple of years. They've really accelerated their rebuild. So the Titans looked at it and said, If there's a way to accelerate your rebuild, it's through a trade like this. And they only had one player who could do that for them, and that was Simmons. And they weren't shopping him, but because of that sort of research, they were open to the opportunity that could arise. And that opportunity arose Wednesday into Thursday. And they were able to keep it quiet, actually, for long enough where... They went to the team meeting and the team didn't have any idea that he had been traded. They had just told him before going into the team meeting, the Titans had, and Robert Sala addressed his team, got up in front of them. The first thing he says, guys, cut right to the chase. We traded Jeff and Jeffrey Simmons is indeed traded. So the Titans looking to accumulate assets and start to really accelerate the building of their young core. On the Bears' side, this is pretty simple. They've got a star quarterback who's on a rookie contract. They had a need on the defensive front. They've had a need on the defensive front for some time. Montez Sweat now coming back from the suspension. And they have, you know, players they like up front, Diala Ningbo, and Grady Jarrett. But they wanted to have another guy that really, when the offense breaks the huddle, they got to say, where is he? Like, we got to take care of him. We got to account for him. And that's exactly what Jeffrey Simmons is. There are few players, maybe no players, that were as resounding a first-team All-Pro pick for me when I made my calls around to different coaches and execs. He was a first-team All-Pro for me last year. He's been All-Pro three times. He is, again, a very, very rare player in that he can absolutely wreck a game from the interior. There aren't that many guys like that. Chris Jones is like that. Aaron Donald was like that in the prime of his career. Those are hard to come by. And now the Bears have one. And again, they're in that window. Where they're able to go and compete for a championship while their quarterback is on his rookie contract. So a deal that makes sense for both teams in that both teams are in very different places. The Titans are in a rebuild and the Bears are in position to go chase a championship right here and right now. Finally, our third topic will be the return of Lamar Jackson from a high ankle sprain. He has practiced this week. And they have been careful with him. And I think it's important to look at the way that the Ravens have handled Lamar Jackson. I think for the most part, handling him this way over the years has worked out. Now, some of the messaging gets a little mixed up. He doesn't have an agent. So there's less clear information sometimes on what sort of injury he has. And that's led to some frustration, people around him, people within that organization. But that is what it is. And right now they've got a chance to build on some of the momentum that they had earlier in the year when Jackson was in there. Whenever they lose Jackson, it's tough because it's tough to replicate what he does in an offense that's built so uniquely for him. And so getting him back again, I think turns them into a completely different team that goes without saying he is a great player. And as, as, as, as nice, a piece of depth as Snoop Helmsley has been for them the last few years, he is not Lamar Jackson. And in this first game back, he gets Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills. And the key to this one actually may not be Lamar Jackson. If you look at the history of it, Derrick Henry has generally bludgeoned the Buffalo Bills defense, and that's how the Ravens have been able to beat the Bills over the last couple of years. In 2024 and 2025, Derrick Henry absolutely ran roughshod over the Bills. Now they've got a new defensive coordinator, a new defensive system under Jim Leonard. It's a totally different look. So do some of the things that we saw over the course of the last couple of years sustain? Derek Henry, absolutely. dominating the Buffalo Bills or does the new defensive scheme and those guys having their feet wet in it and having played in it for a couple of months now, are those guys able to create a different dynamic for Derrick Henry? It'll be really interesting to see. And the better Derrick Henry plays, the easier it is to get for them to get. Um, to get Lamar Jackson comfortable in there. It's also worth noting. I'd say the Ravens need this one worse than the Bills do. The Bills are sitting atop the AFC East. They're a game and a half up on New England. The Jets and Dolphins don't appear to be big factors in that race. While the Ravens come into this one, believe it or not last place. And this is a little bit like the NFC North and the AFC North four and three gets your last place. The Bengals are four and two half game up on the Ravens. And the Steelers and Browns who play each other this weekend are both five and two. So it's a pretty important game for the Ravens and keeping pace in the NFC and the AFC North. For the Bills, I think it's more about, OK, like, let's get a win to stamp the Tom Brady or the Joe Brady era. And this would be the sort of win that like really could coming off of the buy thing, set them on the right trajectory for the rest of the season. Appreciate you guys coming out. As always, you can leave your comments down below here on the YouTube page, or you can get to me on my social media. That's at Albert Breer on Twitter, at Albert Breer on TikTok, at Albert Breer on Facebook, at Albert underscore Breer on Instagram. Appreciate you guys coming out. Enjoy week eight. We will see you on Monday.