The Tennessee Titans and Chicago Bears executed a blockbuster trade on Thursday, but Atlanta Falcons general manager Ian Cunningham came out a winner. 

In late August, the Falcons sent cornerback Clark Phillips III and a 2027 fifth-round pick to the Bears for interior defensive lineman Gervon Dexter. The Bears then turned around and made this lucrative deal for Jeffery Simmons (two first-rounders and a fourth-rounder to the Tennessee Titans for Simmons and a fifth-rounder) just a few months later. 

Simmons is an elite player who deserves this sort of capital, but that is an expensive deal for a player whose output has been eerily similar to the one they just sent away. 

Dexter, 6-foot-6 and 326 pounds, has been a force for the Falcons since coming to Atlanta ahead of the regular season. He boasts a pass-rush win rate of 15.8, with 18 hurries, four quarterback hits, two sacks, and 24 pressures – which is right in line with Simmons’ pass-rush win rate of 14.3, with 14 hurries, six quarterback hits, four sacks, and 24 pressures.

Dexter's numbers match Simmons, despite the former Titan playing nearly twice the snaps (425-279). Dexter's run defense, a sore spot in Chicago, also matches up well against Simmons.

The Bears’ new interior piece is an elite player and has been for several years (three-time All-Pro), but the Falcons might have found a similar player in Dexter, who's four years younger, for considerably less. It’s why they felt compelled to extend him just a month after making that deal. 

“He repped our style at the highest level: strain, effort, toughness, violence, awareness, instinct, all of that,” Falcons defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich said after Dexter signed that deal. “He proved a lot before he got here, and then he's just validated it, because you never know until you get your hands on a guy and you're really around him on a day-to-day capacity, what his makeup is – and his makeup is elite.”

Atlanta needed to get bigger and stronger in the trenches, and Cunningham made that a priority this offseason. The process, which included adding Dexter from the Bears, has paid off in a big way. The Falcons have been one of the NFL’s best defensive lines this season, generating pressure at a high clip without sending added blitzers and stuffing the run. 

This isn't the first time in the recent past the Bears and Falcons have been linked at the position. Prior to the 2025 season, the Falcons waived stalwart Grady Jarrett for salary cap reasons. The Bears quickly pounced on Jarrett and gave him a three-year, $43 million contract.

The 33-year-old Jarrett started just four games for the Bears last year and has 12 tackles in seven starts this season.

The Falcons' four-man rotation at defensive tackle costs less than Jarrett's $18.9 million cap hit combined. And they have been one of the most productive units in the NFL.

Does all this mean that Dexter is as good a player as Simmons? Maybe not, but he is four years younger, matches his production, and it didn’t cost the Falcons a pair of first-rounders to get him.

You be the judge.