Chicago Bears: Bilal Nichols returning at perfect time

The Chicago Bears are lucky to be getting Bilal Nichols back when they are.

In their last game against the Oakland Raiders, the Chicago Bears lost not only one of their best players but a leader on the team. Defensive lineman Akiem Hicks suffered a gruesome dislocated elbow injury and was recently placed on injured reserve and will miss an extended period of time. In fact, the earliest he is eligible to return would be Week 15.

That’s a significant amount of time to be without one of your All-Pro defenders — especially with how valuable he is to the defense.

So far this season, Leonard Floyd has underwhelmed. For most of the offseason, we heard how he was poised for a breakout season. It seemed like a logical and easy prediction considering it was his second year playing alongside Khalil Mack who occupies a ton of attention from the opposing offensive line. In theory, this should be freeing him up to make an impact.

However, Floyd has not lived up to those expectations and so any pressure outside of what Mack has been able to produce has come from Akiem Hicks (with the exception of the game against the Minnesota Vikings when Nick Williams and Roy Robertson-Harris shined). But no one else has consistently gotten pressure on the quarterback outside of Mack and Hicks.

So with Hicks out for almost the entire season, who will the Bears turn to? Fortunately for them, they received some great news this week, as Bilal Nichols has been a full participant in practice and is slated to return this week after missing almost the entire season with a broken hand suffered in the second game.

While he will likely be playing with some kind of apparatus on his hand, which will limit its functionality, he will still present a dominant, almost immovable force on that line, which is exactly what Hicks has been. Ideally, you’d love to have them both healthy to rotate in and out, but at least they won’t be without both.

They’ll have at least one “anchor” on the line in Nichols, with the ability to rotate in Robertson-Harris and Williams who can contribute in a more meaningful role with a little more experience under their belt.