SI

Titans’ Jeffery Simmons Had Sad Moment Coming Out of Tunnel Without Derrick Henry

Kristen Wong

Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports
In this story:

Cameras caught Tennessee Titans defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons having a sobering moment to himself ahead of his team’s preseason finale on Sunday.

Simmons was ready to walk out of the tunnel before the Titans’ preseason game against the New Orleans Saints when he stopped and appeared to shake hands with himself. It was Simmons's first time hitting the field without running back Derrick Henry.

Simmons told bystanders, “My first time running out the tunnel without [Henry], man. Damn.”

Simmons and Henry spent five seasons together in Tennessee dominating at their respective positions. Simmons, a first-round pick by the Titans in 2019, joined Tennessee three years after Henry, but it would seem as though the duo built a long-lasting friendship that, at the very least, featured quite a few tunnel exchanges week in and week out.

Henry responded to the video of Simmons’s sad moment and wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter), “I know you gon hold it down as always.”

Henry, who is coming off his fourth Pro Bowl season with the Titans, signed a two-year deal with the Baltimore Ravens in free agency in March. The 30-year-old back rushed for 1,167 yards and 12 touchdowns last year, eclipsing the 1,000-yard mark for the fifth time in his eight-year stint in Tennessee. 

Henry and Simmons won’t meet in the regular season but could see each other on opposite sides of the field in the AFC playoffs come January.

Published |Modified
Kristen Wong
KRISTEN WONG

Kristen Wong is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. She has been a sports journalist since 2020. Before joining SI in November 2023, Wong covered four NFL teams as an associate editor with the FanSided NFL Network and worked as a staff writer for the brand’s flagship site. Outside of work, she has dreams of running her own sporty dive bar.