Caleb Williams and the Chicago Bears host the Tennessee Titans in Week 1 of the 2024 NFL season and at least one member of the Titans can’t wait to start trash-talking with the former Heisman Trophy winner.
Appearing on The Rich Eisen Show, Titans Pro Bowl defensive tackle Jeffrey Simmons said that he loves to talk trash and sometimes needs to be told by the referees to stop it.
As far as his plans for Williams goes, he made it clear that he plans to get right after him over the whole “painted nails” controversy from a few years ago.
“Painted nails. I can’t wait to say that to him,” Simmons said, via NFL.com. “Most definitely. Oh, it’s gonna be one of them games. I mean, he probably gets smack-talked by his teammates right now, but especially a game like that. My first game, of course I missed the last end of the season. … It’s gonna be the first game of the season. They’ve got us coming to Chicago. All the hype’s gonna be around them of course. I think when special, even prime-time games … everybody just counts Tennessee out, which we all know. A game like Chicago, I’m sure (they’re) thinking we ’bout to get beat bad. That also make me even talk more smack and boost me up a little more, get into a different mode, as well. I’ll be in a different mode that game.
“I get it. You’ve got a first-round pick like Caleb Williams, which is a great player. Watching a couple games when he was at USC, he’s a hell of a player. But it’s a different league, and I’m excited to play him the first game.”
Simmons said that his goal isn’t just to try and intimidate Williams, but to set the tone for the Titans defense all season.
“That’s the goal. That’s my mindset,” Simmons said. “Then again, I really don’t care who it may be. If it could be Tom Brady’s first game of the season, I want to go out there and set the tone, not just for him but for who we are trying to be as a defense and as a team in Tennessee.
“Like you said, it’s one of them games where it’s his first real NFL game. Just hopefully, (I’m) not out to hurt no one, but our goal is to get to him and, like you said, welcome him to the NFL.”
Williams is probably going to have several targets on his back from the teams he plays all season. At least now he knows where the first one will be coming from.
Related: Caleb Williams Reveals Why He Likes To Paint His Nails