Jeffery Simmons has seen enough of Jonathan Taylor to know what happens when a defensive front loses its gap. Asked Wednesday what it takes to slow the Indianapolis Colts running back before Sunday’s division game, the Tennessee Titans defensive tackle gave a one-line answer and then kept going.
“Disrupt the line of scrimmage,” Simmons said. “They trust their guys up front. Guys have been working together for a long time and they trust Jonathan Taylor. He’s a healthy back. I mean, you turn on that tape, he zero to 60 real quick.”
“He make you pay”
Simmons was blunt about how Taylor beat Tennessee in the past. “Guys, maybe we jump out of gap or whatever may be and we just not fit properly, he make you pay,” he said. “He got the speed, he got the vision, he got the patience. He’s a complete back.” He added that Taylor also hurts defenses on play-action and check-downs out of the backfield.
The tape he is talking about is not kind to the Titans. Taylor ran 17 times for 102 yards and three touchdowns in the Colts’ 41-20 win in Nashville on September 21, 2025, then ran 12 times for 153 yards and two scores, and caught a third touchdown, in a 38-14 win in Indianapolis on October 26, 2025. This season he has 398 rushing yards and six rushing touchdowns on 101 carries for a 2-3 Colts team coming off a 34-22 loss at Pittsburgh.
“We got to disrupt the line of scrimmage. We got to get penetration. That’s the name of this front anyway. Attack,” Simmons said. “We got to attack the line of scrimmage, so that’s the way we got to slow him down, and everyone just doing their job.”
Eight years of Quenton Nelson
Simmons also spent part of his session on Colts left guard Quenton Nelson, his regular opponent twice a year since Tennessee drafted him 19th overall out of Mississippi State in 2019. He said the two do not have much of a relationship away from football, but there is respect once the game ends.
“This is year eight for me and been able to have them type of battles. Always a great battle,” Simmons said. “To be able to go against him, he have got me better.” He said that is the value of seeing a division opponent twice: “You can kind of see, okay, what they got me on this game. Now I’ll see him again. Now I can get him on that.”
Asked whether he gets up a little more for that matchup, he said no. “When I attack the field on Sundays, I don’t care who across from me,” he said. “I try to dominate whoever across from me, and it’s no different than this week.”
A new partner up front
Simmons had a career-high 11 sacks last season. Through five games this year he has two sacks and 28 tackles, playing next to John Franklin-Myers, who joined the Titans this offseason after two seasons in Denver with seven and 7.5 sacks. Franklin-Myers has 1.5 sacks so far.
“One thing about me and John, we have a lot of conversation. We sit right next to each other in the meeting room,” Simmons said. He said the pairing is still new, but the work they put in together through the offseason and training camp will show. “John is a hell of a player, and we have very high expectations for each other. When I’m getting a one-on-one, he expect me to win, and vice versa, and it’ll happen real soon.”
Carnell Tate: “It’s a receiver game”
Rookie receiver Carnell Tate, the fourth overall pick out of Ohio State, spoke after Simmons. He caught nine passes for 145 yards in the 24-18 loss at Baltimore on October 4, then had one catch for six yards on five targets in Sunday’s 26-3 home loss to Houston.
“It’s a receiver game. Sometimes it’s going to happen like that,” Tate said. “You got to deal with it sometimes.” Asked where he has improved most through five weeks, he kept it simple: being open and “being available for whenever he needs me,” meaning quarterback Cam Ward.
He was also asked whether an 0-5 start is the biggest mental challenge of his football career. “Yeah, I definitely do,” Tate said. “We just got to go out there and play Titan football. At the end of the day, we got to get one win to move this thing back on track.”
The 0-5 Titans have scored an NFL-low 58 points. They visit the Colts at Lucas Oil Stadium on Sunday, October 18, at 1 p.m. EDT, then host Cleveland a week later.
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