No. 1 overall pick quarterback Caleb Williams will make his NFL debut on Sept. 8, when the Chicago Bears play host to the Tennessee Titans. There's a new level of excitement in Chicago with the arrival of Williams, as evidenced by the new-look Bears opening up as 4.5-point favorites over Tennessee.
While the Titans went 6-11 last year, they put together quite an impressive offseason. The defense added two new starting cornerbacks in L'Jarius Sneed and Chidobe Awuzie, and hired defensive coordinator Dennard Wilson, who has been instrumental in coaching up some of the best secondaries in the NFL. The Titans defense is still led by star lineman Jeffery Simmons, who can't wait to trash talk Williams in his first-ever NFL game.
"Painted nails. I can't wait to say that to him," Simmons said during a recent appearance on the Rich Eisen Show, H/T 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 is right in saying this is a whole different level. Not every rookie quarterback comes in and does what C.J. Stroud did last year. In fact, the last 15 quarterbacks selected No. 1 overall are 0-14-1 in their first career starts! Overall, rookie No. 1 overall pick quarterbacks are 3-14-1 in Week 1 since 1970. The last quarterback to win was David Carr in 2002.
