Bears ride Jeffery Simmons' leadership into the bye with Saints next at Soldier Field
Jeffery Simmons has quickly become the voice of Chicago's defense, and the Bears are big favorites over the Saints coming out of their bye.
The Bears are off in Week 10, but their biggest acquisition of the season is still doing the talking. SB Nation's Windy City Gridiron made leadership the theme of its bye-week roundup. Most of that comes back to defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons, who has made himself the loudest voice on a 7-2 team in two games.
The Bears wired Simmons with a microphone for the 27-24 win over Tampa Bay, his first home game in Chicago. Chicago Bears On SI reported that the footage shows him needling Buccaneers linemen who could not block him even with two and three of them on him, and coaching up teammates between snaps. He backed up the talk with four tackles, a sack, three pressures and a pass defensed. He now has two sacks in two games, one more than Chicago's interior defenders managed combined over the first seven. The extra blockers he draws are also opening up rushers like Austin Booker, who has a career-high five sacks.
The trade explains why Chicago sat out the deadline. Ryan Poles sent two first-round picks and a 2027 fourth-rounder to Tennessee for Simmons and a 2028 fifth. Roundtable relayed NFL Network's Ian Rapoport's explanation for why a Khalil Mack reunion never got close. The Chargers wanted to keep Mack, and on Chicago's side, Rapoport said, "once they did the Jeffery Simmons deal, that was kind of it." The one hole left is cornerback, where Jaylon Johnson has struggled even though he returned an interception for a touchdown against the Bucs.
The bye also came at the right time for receiver Luther Burden III, who took a concussion on a fourth-quarter fumble against Tampa Bay and now has two weeks to clear the protocol. Away from the field, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that the team is sending a care package to an Australian social media user. Bears fans searching for news on Burden found her distressed post and flooded it with encouragement.
What it means for the Saints game
Chicago hosts New Orleans at Soldier Field on Sunday, Nov. 22, at noon Central on Fox. The Bears have won four straight. Over nine games they have scored 241 points and allowed 184, a margin of plus-57. The win streak hasn't been comfortable, though. Three of the four were decided by eight points or fewer, and Caleb Williams threw four interceptions against Tampa Bay. At home, Chicago is 4-1, and the only loss was a 9-3 game against Minnesota in September.
The market expects much more separation. Chicago is favored by 9.5 points across the venues on this site's board. Novig has the Bears at -115 on that number, and DraftKings has the best price at -110. On the moneyline, the Bears are favored at -567 on Novig, while DraftKings is the most generous at -470. That gap is wider than usual for a heavy favorite. The Saints are +426 on Novig and +430 at FanDuel, so the venues barely differ on the underdog side. The total sits between 48.5 and 49.5, and the books' hold runs from 4.2 to 5.0 percent across the three markets.
In a game priced like this, Simmons' push up the middle is how Chicago would build the kind of margin the line expects. It would also give a secondary that still has questions some cover.