The Tennessee Titans are activating 2019 first-round pick Jeffery Simmons for the Week 7 game against the Los Angeles Chargers.
The story of defensive lineman Jeffery Simmons recovery has been truly amazing to watch, and now it will culminate in the Tennessee Titans’ 2019 first-round pick’s activation for the Week 7.
NFL Network insider Ian Rapoport has the latest.
This is pretty amazing: The #Titans are activating first-round pick DL Jeffery Simmons, who tore his ACL during pre-draft training, sources say. They’ll be cautious, but clearly practice went well. He was on NFI.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) October 19, 2019
We got a good idea that Simmons might be activated for this week after the Titans released defensive end Brent Urban on Saturday. In another corresponding move, the Titans also added outside linebacker Derick Roberson and released defensive lineman Matt Dickerson to make room for Simmons.
#Titans also releasing Matt Dickerson to make room for Simmons. So: Simmons, Roberson are in, and Urban, Dickerson are out.
— John Glennon (@glennonsports) October 19, 2019
Simmons suffered the torn ACL back in February during pre-draft workouts. Before suffering the injury, Simmons was thought to be a top 10 talent in the 2019 NFL Draft.
The Titans ended up nabbing Simmons at No. 19 overall with the expectation that he might not play this season, however Simmons nearly made the 53-man roster prior to the season. Tennessee instead opted to put him on the NFI list to start the season.
Simmons returned to practice this week with the chance that he could play in Week 7. Now it looks like that will indeed happen, although it isn’t known exactly how many snaps he’ll see. Chances are it won’t be a full complement as the Titans look to ease him back in.
On Friday, Simmons had this to say about his chances of playing, per Jim Wyatt of Titans Online.
"“I am just trusting coach (Mike) Vrabel and the process right now, trusting their plan with me. If they decide to play me this weekend, we’ll go from there. But right now, I don’t know yet. I saw somewhere he said they’ll make a decision by tomorrow so whenever they let me know, we’ll go from there.”"
The addition of Simmons will be a nice shot in the arm for an already elite Titans defense. Simmons will add some help to the pass-rush upfront, but he will make an even bigger impact as a run-stuffing lineman. The Titans own the No. 15 run defense in the NFL this season.