The Tennessee Titans are set to face the Chicago Bears in Week 1 of the 2024 NFL season and it will also be the debut of No. 1 overall pick, Caleb Williams.
Titans defensive lineman Jeffery Simmons definitely has the game circled on his calendar, partly because he can’t wait to trash talk the Bears quarterback.
“Painted nails. I can’t wait to say that to him,” Simmons said on The Rich Eisen Show. “Most definitely. Oh, it’s gonna be one of them games. I mean, he probably gets smack-talked by his teammates right now, but especially a game like that. My first game, of course I missed the last end of the season. … It’s gonna be the first game of the season. They’ve got us coming to Chicago. All the hype’s gonna be around them of course. I think when special, even prime-time games … everybody just counts Tennessee out, which we all know. A game like Chicago, I’m sure (they’re) thinking we ’bout to get beat bad. That also make me even talk more smack and boost me up a little more, get into a different mode, as well. I’ll be in a different mode that game.
“I get it. You’ve got a first-round pick like Caleb Williams, which is a great player. Watching a couple games when he was at USC, he’s a hell of a player. But it’s a different league, and I’m excited to play him the first game.”
Is @Titans DT @GrindSimmons94 the best trash-talking defensive lineman in the #NFL? And what does he have planned for Week 1 against Caleb Williams?#TitanUp @CALEBcsw pic.twitter.com/z15t48ea5R
— Rich Eisen Show (@RichEisenShow) June 25, 2024
Simmons has become infamous around the league for his trash talk, and it has even led to players complaining to referees, who have told him to “calm down” on multiple occasions, he revealed.
“I’ve had the ref come to me with like ‘you have to calm it down,'” Simmons said. “Sometimes, the ref probably heard me really talking smack. He’s like ‘nine-eight, calm down.’
“It’s been like that a couple times.”
Big Jeff has a little over two more months to plan his trash talk before the Titans meet the Bears in Chicago.