Chicago Bears: Bilal Nichols at nose tackle could be nice.

The Chicago Bears defensive lineman Bilal Nichols was built for diversity.

The Chicago Bears had their first few padded practices, and boy was there a lot to take away from it. I want to focus on Bilal Nichols as the current starting nose tackle. Many Chicago Bear fans were pounding the table for Ryan Pace to use the leftover cap space from Eddie Goldman to sign a replacement like Damon Harrison.

The Chicago Bears held their ground and put Bilal Nichols in at the starting position. Chris Prescott, the area scout that found Bilal Nichols mentioned how Nichols was a nose tackle for Delaware. The plan was to use him as a player who could play both defensive end positions and nose tackle.

Bilal Nichols has already proven himself at the position

Delaware ran a defense that used three defensive linemen upfront a lot. Nichols was the center man that not only rushed the passer but stopped runs as well. At the same time, the Chicago Bears didn’t want Nichols to gain too much size so he could still play all three positions. Nichols isn’t Eddie Goldman, and that could be a good thing.

Having experience in college could give Nichols an advantage. Pro football focus in 2018 gave Nichols a better run defense grade than pass rush, 74.0 compared to 62.4. While his scores weren’t at the top levels in 2019, he still graded higher for run defense than pass rush. Now that Nichols has gained size, his run-stopping ability might good enough to secure himself on the defensive line for the future.

I am excited to hear more about trench warfare going on. It sounds like Nichols hasn’t missed a beat and has done well so far. I would like the media to ask more questions about the trench guys. Something that stood out to me is hoe Germain Ifeid has been handling Akeim Hicks well. Now if we can only get some more news on the battle up front.