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LAKE FOREST, Ill. — One of my least favorite sports phrases of recent memory is “all in.”
It’s a lazy, reductive and banal cliche, which makes it perfect for sports media, where shorthand terminology is often adopted to explain basic concepts like winning and losing. A sports radio host needs something to bellow.
In the modern SportsWorld (hat tip to Robert Lipsyte), you’re either “all in” or you’re on your way out.
Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Poles knows where he is right now. On Thursday, he made a trade that elicited authentic usage of the phrase when he sent two first-round picks and swapped a fourth-rounder for a fifth with the Tennessee Titans to acquire All-Pro defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons.
“I know the ‘all in’ narrative is there,” Poles said Friday. “We’re all in from the moment we started training camp this year. Go talk to Ben (Johnson) right now in his office; he’s all in on this week.”
That’s true. But this trade reinforces the idea that the Bears are real Super Bowl contenders going into their Monday Night Football road game against the Seattle Seahawks, and everyone at Halas Hall knows expectations have been raised.
“We’re going after it,” Bears linebacker Devin Bush said Friday. “We all in.”
“You could feel the energy; this building was on fire (Thursday),” Poles said.
The Bears are 5-2 and one of the top three or four teams in the NFC. Caleb Williams isn’t just a franchise quarterback; he’s an MVP candidate. Johnson’s offense is humming.
To quote something former Chicago Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein said 10 years ago: “If not now, when?”
Four years ago, Poles was also “all in,” just in a different way — and it’s why the Bears are now talking about the Super Bowl as a realistic destination and not an abstract goal.
In the span of six days at the end of October 2022, Poles traded both of his defensive captains: Pass rusher Robert Quinn was sent to the Philadelphia Eagles on Oct. 26, and linebacker Roquan Smith went to the Baltimore Ravens on Oct. 31.
The Bears got some picks, but the point was to weaken the roster to improve their chances of getting a high draft pick. It sure worked — the Bears were 3-4 when they traded Quinn, and Chicago proceeded to drop every game for the rest of the season.
A 3-14 Bears record and a fortuitous regular-season finale win by the league-worst Houston Texans earned Chicago the No. 1 pick in 2023, which they traded to the Carolina Panthers for a package that included the No. 1 pick in 2024 — which they used on Caleb Williams.
You can rip the concept of tanking, but sometimes, it works.
Four years later, the Bears have their franchise quarterback, the coach of their dreams, the third-best NFC championship odds and now, a game-wrecking defensive tackle.
Poles needed to connect on a big swing to improve the defense. His offseason additions were fine, but not definitive, so there were major questions going into the season. He set himself up to make a sizable deal before the NFL’s Nov. 10 trade deadline if the Bears showed they were worth it, and they’ve done just that.
Adding Simmons, who had 11 sacks last season and has four through seven games in 2026, answers some questions, but not all of them. The Bears could use help in the secondary as they wait for safety Coby Bryant to return.
As Poles alluded to Friday, he isn’t going to trade multiple picks for another defensive difference-maker. There’s a fine line to walk when you’re trying to win now and in the future. So, maybe the Bears aren’t all in, but they’re close.
“I know it’s kind of a joke that kind of goes around, but ‘F– them picks’ is a big thing,” Poles said of the Los Angeles Rams’ famous mantra. “That’s really not what we’re about. I know it took a lot to get this done, but we absolutely believe that the draft and bringing young talent is a way that you sustain success around here.”
Poles was proactive in setting up the Simmons trade because he knows this is the time to be on the aggressive side of toeing that tightrope. You have to get to the other side, right? The point isn’t to enjoy the view.
“It’s a different feeling,” Poles said. “It feels good. We’ve done a lot of good work to put ourselves in this position … to be in a space where you’re chasing championships, where we were just trying to get off the ground the first couple years that I was here. So, I feel really good about it.”
For Simmons, the trade was bittersweet. He’s been in Nashville, Tenn., since 2019, and he found out about the deal Thursday at the Titans facility. Saying goodbye to his 3-year-old daughter was difficult. But saying hello to the Bears on Friday was easy.
“The trade told me everything I needed to know, especially the value — from giving away two first-round picks,” Simmons said. “I could also look on the other side of that and be like, ‘Man, I just got traded,’ but I could also look on the bright side of things. This team believes in what they have here, and they want it right now.”
Bush said when he heard about it Thursday, he thought it was “fake news.” But when he found it was real, he knew that Halas Hall would be teeming with reporters Friday.
“Anytime you get a guy of that caliber, it’s a huge headline,” he said.
The headline was so big that Bears offensive coordinator Press Taylor said his brother, Cincinnati Bengals head coach Zac Taylor, called him, which was unusual considering how the NFL schedule works.
“I get a FaceTime from my brother, which, we don’t normally talk until like late in the week, with just a huge smile,” Press Taylor said. “And I’m like, ‘Thank you. We’re excited.’ And he’s like, ‘No, we play the Titans this week.'”
He laughed. He knows what it’s like to coach against Simmons.
“I was in the division for four years with the guy, and I know it’s a nightmare,” Press Taylor said. “Twice a year, it was an absolute nightmare having to deal with him — just being aware of where he is, how you’re blocking him every given play. And you know what he’s going to do.
“He’s a high-motor, incredibly productive, terrifying guy to go against. I’m glad we’re not going against him anymore.”
Simmons versus Quenton Nelson, the Seahawks’ new offensive line addition, will be a matchup to watch Monday night. Simmons will rival Williams in terms of hype.
The national audience hasn’t seen much of Simmons — who became the highest-paid defensive tackle in NFL history when he signed an extension worth between $60 million and $100 million guaranteed this summer — in recent years, as the Titans haven’t been appointment viewing. Now, he’s on the Bears, who are playing their second of three consecutive night games.
The world is about to see a lot more of Simmons, a large man (6-foot-4, 305 pounds) who brings with him massive expectations.
“I haven’t played in a primetime game since 2023,” he said. “It’s been that long since I played in a primetime game. I think Thursday night against the Steelers was the last time I actually played in one. But it’s exciting. When you’ve got a primetime game, that means you’re doing something right.
“With this team, with last year’s success, and, of course, this year, what more can you ask for?”
Welcome to the spotlight, Jeffery. After next Sunday night’s home game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Bears still have a Thanksgiving game, a Saturday night game in Buffalo, a Christmas Day game against the Green Bay Packers and a TBD finale against the Minnesota Vikings left on the schedule. After that comes the playoffs, and winning one game there is no longer the ceiling. It’s the floor.
With Simmons aboard, the future is now for the Chicago Bears, who are right where Poles expected them to be when he tore them down four years ago.
All in? Sure, I guess you can say that.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
