Andrew Billings brings Chicago Bears run defense they need

The Chicago Bears have been quieter than expected, especially when filling holes on their defensive line. They added Andrew Billings, who will come in and compete to start next season.

Chicago Bears signed Andrew Billings from the Las Vegas Raiders

Without many other big moves so far, he appears to be one of the bigger additions. The team did not upgrade the three-technique role, and he will play more in the one-technique, or the zero as a nose tackle. That is where he was drafted to play.

For his career, he has 1,035 snaps in the A gap, and 1,123 in the B gap. However, last year, he played 128 snaps in the A gap and 347 in the B gap. Before then, he was primarily in the A gap.

That is because his biggest strength is clogging holes and defending the run. Last season he had a 72.3 run defense grade. When you compare that to the Chicago Bears, it looks incredible.

Once you see that it starts to get really easy to see why the Chicago Bears added Billings. To be fair, they hardly had a nose tackle. They signed Justin Jones to be the three-technique and he is still there.

Armon Watts was claimed on waivers, and while he got in where he could, he should really be depth for someone like Justin Jones. Angelo Blackson was asked to play the nose but showed no effort, and eventually was benched.

Then, there is Mike Pennel the actual lineman with nose tackle ability. The team was giving up big runs to the outside too, but it is pretty easy to see that you are going to get gashed in the middle when these are your run defenders.

Last season Billings had 21 run stops. Only Jones was higher with 22, and Pennel was at 18. The difference is notable.

With Billings as a nose tackle, they can at least enter the NFL draft with Jones and Blackson as the three-techniques. Pennel remains a free agent, so there is a chance that one more depth nose tackle comes in, but they may not do much more with the interior before the draft.