Texas EDGE Colin Simmons delivers career-best pass-rushing performance against Tennessee

• Career-best production: Colin Simmons recorded career highs with 10 pressures and six sacks across 36 pass-rush snaps against Tennessee.

• Elite 2026 performance: Simmons has generated 18 pressures and eight sacks through four games while earning a 90.5 PFF pass-rush grade.

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Texas edge defender Colin Simmons entered 2026 as one of the top prospects on the 2027 NFL Draft Big Board, and his performance against Tennessee in Week 4 showed exactly why.

Simmons erupted for a career-high 10 pressures against Tennessee, including six sacks, one quarterback hit and three hurries across 36 pass-rush snaps. He earned a 91.3 PFF pass-rush grade for his efforts, the second-highest single-game mark of his Texas career.

The six sacks were also a career high, adding up to eight defensive stops in total — another personal best — across his 62 total snaps.

Simmons had generated eight pressures and two sacks across 53 pass-rush snaps over his first three games. Against Tennessee alone, he surpassed both totals, generating pressure on 27.8% of his pass-rush snaps after doing so on 15.1% over the opening three weeks.

That performance brought Simmons to 18 pressures — eight sacks, two hits and eight hurries — across 89 pass-rush snaps this season. His 90.5 PFF pass-rush grade ranks fifth among Power Four edge defenders in 2026.

It is the latest step forward for a pass-rusher who has been productive since arriving at Texas.

Simmons generated 46 pressures as a freshman in 2024 before raising that total to 59 in 2025, when he earned a career-best 91.7 season-long pass-rush grade. He has added another 18 pressures through four games this season, bringing his career total to 123 across 652 pass-rush snaps.

That works out to pressure on 18.9% of his career pass-rush opportunities, with 27 sacks included in that production.

The Tennessee game nevertheless represents a new high point. Simmons had never recorded more pressures, sacks or defensive stops in a game, and only once had he produced a better single-game PFF pass-rush grade.

Now, four games into his third season at Texas, the production behind Simmons’ standing as one of the top prospects on the 2027 NFL Draft Big Board is becoming increasingly difficult to miss.

CLICK HERE TO SEE SIMMONS' PROFILE IN PREMIUM STATS PRO