New-Look 'Juggernaut' for Bears Front

Maybe the weight loss by Andrew Billings was exaggerated a bit by coaches and teammates, or at least it wasn't the 16 pounds offensive tackle Darnell Wright lost by doing wide receiver workouts.

There could be less exaggeration involved in his nickname, though.

The Bears have been hollering "Juggernaut" at their new nose tackle when he's making plays in practice.

"That's my nickname," Billings said.

Juggernaut is yet another Marvel character, this from the X-Men movies and comics, and the third MCU name to surface with the Bears defense. First Trevis Gipson started doing a sack dance imitating Thor with his hammer. Then coach Matt Eberflus started calling Kyler Gordon "Spider-Man."

The character is a large, wide body who pretty much runs through about anything.

"I like it a lot," Billings said. "That's the way I see a nose guard in a defense, no matter if it's pure read or a tech, you're the middle of the defense. So you've gotta hold it down no matter what that A-gap has to be there and can't nothing come through."

The weight loss might be more of an exaggeration because there was great talk about it from Eberflus.

"About 4 pounds," the 6-foot-1, 311-pounder said. "That makes a difference though."

In the past, Billings had been listed at as much as 328 with other teams but had apparently dropped weight since that weight had been reported.

"It's just leaner and I worked on my flexibility as well," Billings said.

The help is in building his confidence when two blockers are facing him.

"It helps me stay low on doubles, really," Billings said. "It really does. Being low and stay low and moving your feet at the same time it takes a little flexibility especially in the hips."

If Billings is better able to handle double-teams, three technique Justin Jones thinks his chance of getting in the gap and upfield becomes easier.

"He commands a double team," Jones said. "That singles me up. Teams just can't slide to me every time. Teams can't just send a chip my way, send a slide my way.

"I don't know if you've seen, a lot of the games that we played the center is always on me, every time. Now that we have ends that get upfield and get around the edge, and we've got a guy who can split a double team—not just Andrew Billings, but Gervon Dexter—you know, guys who can push the front four, push the line back and stuff like that, that frees me up a lot."

The Bears badly needed someone to take pressure of Jones last year when they worked through several veterans who have since been discarded. So they brought in Billings at what Spotrac.com reports at $2.75 million for one year.

Billings has technique to work at while in Indianapolis this week for practices Wednesday and Thursday and the game Saturday based on his showing in the preseason opener. He and all the defensive linemen need to get a little more aggressive than when they made the conversion from practices to the first game.

"I think it's getting off blocks when the dude is really trying to drive you to the ground," Billings said. "Like, in camp we're not trying to throw people to the ground. We're just trying to stay in front, stay on their blocks.

"I think the difference in the game is what we need to work on. It's just like really getting rid of a dude instead of just, like for me personally, it was like I was trying a swim off or stuff."

Offensive linemen aren't holding anything back now like in practice, and he can't either.

"In a game they're really trying to push you to the ground," Billings said. "So it's a little different than practicing against each other."

When they're throwing each around this week, things have a better chance of being heated.

"The biggest thing about joint practices is we don't want any fights," Billings said. "You, know, things are going to happen. Guys are going to get emotional.

"You might throw somebody to the ground or somebody might throw you to the ground but the most important thing is staying calm and no fights."

There is a benefit to this work, Billings says.

"The benefit is they don't know what you're going to do," Billings said. "When we're going against (the Bears offense), I know what Cody Whitehair is going to do, he knows what I'm going to do.

"So it kind of just keeps you thinking now. Now I'm going against a guy I don't know nothing about him. I haven't watched any film and he hasn't watched any film on me so you kind of get away with your little vet technique and things like that when you go against somebody else. But by the time the second day comes around it's back to Square One."

Ultimately, it's a chance for the Bears' "Juggernaut" to show off a little more of what he can do in three days of work because he's not going against his own teammate.

"You can play a little harder when it's not your own teammate, basically," he said.

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