- Simmons makes an immediate impact: Jeffery Simmons earned an 81.0 overall PFF grade and an 83.5 pass-rush grade in his Bears debut, ranking fourth and third, respectively, among qualifying interior defensive linemen in Week 8.
- Montez Sweat sees fewer double-teams: Sweat's double-team rate fell to 6.5% against Seattle after reaching at least 18.8% in each of his previous five games. He recorded five pressures and earned a 71.5 PFF pass-rush grade.
- Chicago's defensive front shows promise: Four Bears defensive linemen earned pass-rush grades above 65.0, while every player with at least 10 pass-rushing snaps faced a season-low double-team rate.
When the Chicago Bears traded for Jeffrey Simmons last week, two things were immediately clear: That they had landed a premium defensive player, but they had also given up a haul to get him.
After his first game with the Bears, we’re already seeing the impact he is having, not just by making plays himself but also by how his presence opens things up for other players on that defensive front.
Let’s dig into his debut on Monday Night Football and see where he made an impact.
Debut numbers
Simmons’ surface-level numbers were good in his Bears debut against the Seattle Seahawks. He produced three pressures from 41 pass-rushing snaps, including a sack. he also batted down a pass and recorded three defensive stops. He earned an 81.0 PFF grade that ranked fourth among the 87 interior defensive linemen to play 25 or more snaps, while his 83.5 PFF pass-rush grade ranked third among the same group of players.
He also ranked third at the position with a 94.4 PFF adjusted pass-rush grade, which takes into consideration the expected grade based on down and distance, dropback depth and other situational factors.
All that to say: In his debut with the Bears, even if we look only at what Simmons did himself, it was a really strong start to his career as the latest Monster of the Midway.
He has more than replaced the interior pass-rush juice the Bears lost when they traded Gervon Dexter Sr. to the Atlanta Falcons before the season began. But what he offers that Dexter doesn’t, even at his best, is a gravitational pull that commands the offense’s attention.
ALL SNAPS | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
RANK | ||||||||
1 | 90.6 | 91.2 | 25 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 13.0% | |
2 | 83.5 | 94.4 | 41 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 14.7% | |
3 | 83.3 | 95.5 | 32 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 18.8% | |
4 | 83.0 | 84.1 | 37 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 20.0% | |
5 | 79.0 | 77.4 | 30 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 13.8% | |
6 | 78.4 | 79.0 | 31 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 20.0% | |
7 | 77.0 | 87.7 | 26 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 20.0% | |
8 | 70.6 | 84.1 | 27 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 16.0% | |
9 | 70.2 | 59.8 | 26 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 19.2% | |
10 | 68.5 | 76.4 | 29 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 17.9% | |
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How it impacted the rest of the Bears’ defensive line
Coming into Week 8, edge defender Montez Sweat was having a much less impactful season than he did in 2025, when he totaled 65 pressures in the regular season and playoffs. Through the first seven weeks of the season, he ranked 64th out of the 80 edge defenders with at least 100 pass-rushing snaps in PFF pass-rush grade (57.4). Among that same group of players, his 13 total pressures tied for 59th.
In Monday’s win over the Seahawks, though, he racked up five pressures and earned a 71.5 PFF pass-rush grade. That pass-rush grade was tied for 18th among the 91 edge defenders with at least 10 pass-rushing snaps this past week, and his five pressures were tied for fifth.
The biggest change in Sweat’s data from this past week is that after being double-teamed on at least 18.8% of his pass-rushing snaps from Week 1 to Week 5 (Sweat missed Week 6 and 7 due to suspension), he was double-teamed on just 6.5% of his pass-rushing snaps against the Seahawks.
The same was true for every Bears defensive lineman with at least 10 pass-rushing snaps in this game — they all set season lows in double-team rate.
Now, obviously, we are looking at just one game of data with Simmons in Chicago. It could simply be down to how the Seahawks set out to handle the Bears’ defensive front, and the caveat is that Simmons himself was double-teamed at a low rate in this game.
Wins Above Replacement
Jeffery Simmons · DI
That being said, with four players on the defensive line earning a PFF pass-rush grade above 65.0 and every player with 10 or more pass-rushing snaps seeing a season-low double-team rate, there is at least an indication that Simmons’ presence is opening things up for the rest of this defensive line.
That’s what makes the Bears so dangerous in the NFC after this trade. Not only have they added potentially the best interior pass-rushing threat in the NFL, but they've also made life easier for the other pass-rushers around him.
And that is a terrifying prospect for the rest of the NFL.
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