The Chicago Bears sent a jolt through the team facility on Thursday morning when the trade was announced that the team was acquiring All-Pro defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons. It was a deal general manager Ryan Poles has been keeping tabs on for a while and talks really started heating up with the Tennessee Titans late Wednesday night.

When Thursday morning came around, the deal was announced, sending one of the league’s most dominant defensive players to the Chicago Bears.

“I think anytime you get the opportunity to add a player of this significance, everybody gets excited,” Bears defensive coordinator Dennis Allen said. “It’s like waking up on Christmas morning and you go out and see all of the presents under the tree. So then, my mind starts to go to, okay how can we utilize this guy.”

I guarantee you no one is more excited about this move more than Allen. Poles, I’m sure, is thrilled to land such a massive swing as his head coach Ben Johnson. And Simmons, himself, is likely ecstatic to join with a winning organization. But, this shiny new toy is Allen’s to play with and add to his defense.

The question is, how soon can Allen and the Bears get Simmons integrated into this defense and how will they plan to use him?

How soon will Jeffery Simmons be able to play for the Chicago Bears?

Chicago’s next game on the schedule is coming up on Monday night in Seattle against the Seahawks. There’s still two days of practice ahead of that game and Simmons is already in the building after arriving on Thursday and will be out there today. That alone bodes well for his chances of making his Bears debut against the defending champs. How much he actually plays depends on how the next few days go at practice.

“I think it’ll be a work in progress,” Allen explained. “We’ll see what he can digest and how much he can take in in a short period of time. Again, the fact that he is such a professional and really studies the game I think allows him to catch up pretty quickly. We’ll see how that goes throughout the course of the next few days. The more he can digest, the more opportunities there are for him to be on the field.”

The benefit is that Simmons has experience in a similar style scheme and he’s in football shape. This isn’t like getting Kyler Gordon back from injury where you have to monitor his snap count. Simmons has played 50+ defensive snaps in all seven games this season.

For context, think back to the Montez Sweat deal in 2023. Sweat was acquired on Oct. 31 and made his debut during the team’s next game on Nov. 5, playing 41 defensive snaps. Simmons can quickly get integrated into this system and play a good chunk of the game on Monday night, saying he does get quickly integrated.

“The first thing we’re doing is getting him ready for this gameplan,” Allen said. “We’ve got a plethora of things that we have in volume in our playbook. Let’s narrow all of these things down to what do we specifically have to know this week. And then you begin to build the foundation of knowledge with what we’re trying to get done. That grows as you go along. I think the focus really is, this week let’s figure out what the gameplan is.”

Again, Simmons is a professional and an eight-year veteran. This isn’t like teaching the scheme to a new rookie in training camp. Simmons will be a quick learner and will have his opportunities to go out there and make an impact on Monday.

After that, the Bears’ next game will be the following Sunday night at home against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in primetime. It’ll be a big game to fully unleash Simmons and give him a full week to not only get more involved, but have specific plays schemed up for him. After that, the Bears have the week off in Week 10.

“It’s not like you can go in and say we’re going to do all these crazy things,” Allen added. “We just have to get our gameplan together on what we can get accomplished this week. We’ll have a better feel for it next week, the following week, the following week after that. It’ll change as we go along.”

One thing’s for sure, Simmons is a disruptive force that the Bears are beyond excited to have. They’re going to find a way to get him out there as soon as possible in a way that’s best for the entire unit, starting on Monday night in Seattle.