Bilal Nichols' Return Could Bolster Depleted Bears Defense
Bears defensive end Bilal Nichols knows what losing defensive end Akiem Hicks meant to his team's defense.
Nichols might be the one person who can help negate some of the effect of the loss Sunday at Soldier Field against the New Orleans Saints.
After going out in the second game with a broken hand, Nichols appears close to a return, and practiced Monday for the first time in a month as the team tries to figure what to do about Hicks and his injured elbow.
"I mean, all the games I missed, I wanted to get back out there as quickly as possible," Nichols said.
With a broken hand, though, it wasn't possible until now. And even now, Nichols would be wearing a club cast.
"I mean, it's a little different feeling," he said. "It's really the biggest thing to me is just getting used to it."
It's a different feeling for the Bears not having Hicks, who is their mountainous force on the defensive front. Hicks has always been there, and never missed a game with the team until a knee injury kept him sidelined against Minnesota Sept. 29. Then he suffered the arm injury against the Raiders.
With Hicks playing last year, the Bears were first against the run. They're ranked fifth this year, although he did miss the Vikings game and played only briefly against the Raiders when Oakland's Josh Jacobs ran for 123 yards.
Now, coach Matt Nagy said the likelihood is Hicks could return later in the year but is out indefinitely. In fact, Hicks could be out so long that it's possible they might still place him on injured reserve with intent to recall him to the 53-man roster later.
"I think that's gonna be important here in the next couple days for us to decide what's the best thing for that," Nagy said. "For us, you've gotta always start with the player, and then you've gotta see how is it for us as a team, then you put them together and figure out what's best.
"I think I have ultimate trust in our doctors and Andre Tucker our trainer, and then talking to Akiem, where he's at. But we'll end up making a decision and I think there's a couple different ways to go and we'll kind of play it out here in the next couple days."
The Bears already promoted Abdullah Anderson from the practice squad to the 53-man roster when they put Kyle Long on injured reserve Monday with a hip injury.
At least getting Nichols back with a ball cast on his hand would give them one starting end to pair with nose tackle Eddie Goldman and then either reserve Roy Robertson-Harris, Nick Williams, Anderson or Anthony Harris.
It just depends how Nichols can handle the cast.
"Never had a hand injury," Nichols said. "This is new to me. As a defensive lineman, that's what you need your hands for. So it's new to me. Ain't going to cry about it, just going to work with it."
He has already received some advice from outside linebacker Leonard Floyd, who had to do the same thing last year.
"I actually talked to Leonard," Nichols said. "He's giving me a lot of insight and what to expect and things that he did that helped him out a lot. You know we'll see. I'm going to try some things out."
Nichols was the surprise of Bears camp last year, a fifth-rounder who became starter by beating out Robertson-Harris and former Bear Jonathan Bullard. As the rookie surprise, Nichols knew who to credit with his development – Hicks.
"He pretty much molded me into the young player I am," Hicks said. "It just hurt to see him go through that (injuries) and catch those types of breaks because I know how hard he worked. Best thing I can do is just continue to grow and do whatever I can to make things easier on everybody else."
Nichols also had nothing but praise for Long from their days at training camp playing .
"My whole rookie year, Kyle helped me out a lot because I lined up against him every day," Nichols said. "Guys like him is why I had a pretty good season as a rookie last year."
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