The Minnesota Vikings defense is riding high after another stellar performance last weekend against the Chicago Bears, but the interior defensive line remains a far cry from what it could be with tackle Caleb Banks playing at the level the team expected when selecting him No. 18 overall in the first round of this year’s NFL draft.
Banks struggled with his technique through training camp and the preseason as well as his physical conditioning, which the DT acknowledged publicly in August. Part of the problem is that he missed all but three games during his final year in college due to a foot injury that also hampered his progress this offseason.
Because of those issues, Banks has not started either of Minnesota’s games this season and has played just 52 snaps on defense thus far (37 percent). He has tallied six combined tackles, including one tackle for loss.
The Vikings are playing well enough that they don’t need to make any blockbuster offers to improve the defense. However, defensive tackle Jeffrey Simmons of the Tennessee Titans would be a dream candidate to elevate coordinator Brian Flores’s group to yet another level.
“Jeffery Simmons is a guy, who if he’s not happy with the way the Titans are going and wanted to be traded, I would pay a premium for,” the Purple Persuasion posted to X on Tuesday, September 22. “Adding him to Redmond, LDR [Levi Drake Rodriguez], Orange, Banks and TID [Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins]…”
Titans Don’t Appear Likely to Entertain Jeffrey Simmons Trade Anytime Soon
Simmons is 29 years old and recently inked a three-year extension worth a total of $106 million that keeps him under contract in Tennessee through 2030.
The Titans also just hired a new head coach in Robert Saleh and are in just the second season of quarterback Cam Ward’s career, the No. 1 overall pick in 2025.
In other words, Tennessee is a team looking to build itself up over the next couple of years and not to trade away cornerstone players like Simmons, who earned first-team All-Pro honors last season for the third time in his first seven professional campaigns and is also a four-time Pro Bowler.
Vikings Hope They Found Next Jeffrey Simmons in Caleb Banks
That said, adding Simmons to the fold would be worth the first-round pick (and then some) he would cost the Vikings given his elite talent against both the run and the pass.
“If the Titans hadn’t signed Simmons to a much-deserved extension this offseason, they would have been pointing at the Quinnen Williams trade as the baseline for a Simmons move,” Bill Barnwell of ESPN wrote in July. “I’d argue that the four-time Pro Bowler’s even more impactful than his counterpart in Dallas, with Simmons simply willing the Titans’ defense to stops at times last season by overwhelming overmatched linemen. He’s still wildly underrated.”
Simmons tallied career highs in QB hits (21), tackles for loss (17) and sacks (11) in 2025. He is exactly the type of player Minnesota hopes Banks will develop into, so the two of them side by side could prove devastating for years to come — if that ever happened.
Vikings Urged to Trade for $106 Million All-Pro Amid Caleb Banks’ Struggles