Jurrell Casey on Jeffery Simmons: 'Time to Shine'

The five-time Pro Bowler knew his days with the Tennessee Titans were numbered when he saw the 2019 first-round draft pick in action.

NASHVILLE – Jurrell Casey did not need to be told. He had seen all he needed to see from Jeffery Simmons in the one season they played together to know that the Tennessee Titans did not need – and probably did not want – him as they had for much of the previous decade.

Sure enough, not long after the 2019 season ended, Casey was told that he had been traded to the Denver Broncos. It was a stunning blow to a player who had made clear in his words and actions that he wanted to spend his entire career with one franchise. Not long after, he said some things out of anger and frustration that he probably wished he hadn’t.

Thursday, nearly a year and a half later as he announced his retirement as a player, the five-time Pro Bowler had a few things to say about Simmons.

“It’s his time to go shine,” Casey said during a formal retirement press conference at Nissan Stadium. “It’s his time to get the job done. I left some big shoes out there for him to fill. So, I hope he goes out there and handles it.

“From his first two years now, he’s definitely been doing it. I’m definitely excited to see how he comes [along].”

When Simmons, Tennessee’s first-round pick in the 2019 draft, make Casey expendable, he unwittingly fractured a relationship between a player and a team – temporarily, as it turned out – that does not exist often these days.

The Titans selected Casey in the third round of the 2011 NFL Draft, and he was a starter almost from the moment he first walked in the locker room. An indefatigable presence on the field and off, he missed just five games over nine seasons, appeared in five Pro Bowls and became the franchise’s first player in more than two decades to record at least five sacks in seven straight seasons (2013-19).

Twice along the way, Casey agreed to contract extensions while there was still a year remaining on his current deal. The second time was in 2016, in the wake of consecutive seasons in which Tennessee tied for the NFL’s worst record and won five games combined. It would have been simple – expected, even – for him at that time to play out his pact and then go off in search of a better opportunity. Instead, he reaffirmed his commitment.

Things did not work out in Denver. Casey played just three games in 2020 before he sustained a season-ending injury, and he was released early in the offseason.

Then, as a free agent this offseason, he turned his attention once again to the Titans. His focus was not on the future but on the past and a desire to undo whatever damage might have been done when he claimed the trade left him feeling like general manager Jon Robinson and other franchise officials treated him “like a piece of trash.”

“I called Jon about a couple of weeks ago, I want to say about three weeks ago,” Casey said. “I sat down and talked to him, hashed out the differences that we had. Whatever, it wasn’t really much differences, it was more my feelings of how I felt about the whole situation.

“But they kept open arms. They said, ‘Case, don’t worry about none of that. You’re a Titan for life. You’re family. And we love you over here.’ It’s definitely a blessing.”

Casey can take comfort in the fact that he was at least partially to blame for the situation. After all, his willingness to reach out to and tutor younger players throughout his time in Tennessee helped many of his teammates adjust quickly to the NFL after college. Simmons was one of those guys, and because the two played the same position, was an especially eager student.

And now that he has some time on his hands, Casey is willing to help a little more.

“Hopefully, in the next year or so, if (Simmons) feels like I can help him out a little bit – and my body aint’ breaking down no more – I can go out there and really teach him something,” Casey said. “… He’s going to be a hell of a player. He’s one guy, when he first came in, he got underneath the wing. He came out working. He came out ready to push.

“And to have a guy like that … once they drafted him and saw how he was working you know what’s to come. It was never hard feelings with Jeffery. I love the guy dearly.”