Akiem Hicks smiled last week, unable to contain his pride in fellow Bears defensive lineman Nick Williams. The backup is such a hard worker, Hicks joked, that the Bears put his locker next to Hicks’ to keep him inspired.
“That’s my guy — I got a soft spot,” Hicks said then. “You have teammates, you have friends and then you have lifelong friends. Nick is one of those guys, just because he has this positive energy that just never stops.”
Even though Williams played only two games last year, Hicks said that adding Williams before the 2018 season was a “big step in how we’ve developed.”
It’s ironic, then, that Hicks’ words will be tested if he spends Sunday on the sideline. The Bears’ Pro Bowl defensive lineman didn’t practice Thursday because of a right knee injury, and coach Matt Nagy said Hicks’ participation against the Vikings is “probably going to end up being a game-time decision.”
If he doesn’t play, the Bears will lean on two linemen, Abdullah Anderson and Williams, who took less-traveled paths to the team. They already have Roy Robertson-Harris starting for Bilal Nichols, who remains sidelined after breaking his right hand against the Broncos.
Williams, who will turn 30 in February, entered the league as a seventh-round pick from Div. I-AA Samford. After playing for the Steelers’ practice squad and in games for the Chiefs and Dolphins, Williams couldn’t land a job in 2017. He spent the season out of football, training at Godspeed Elite Sports Training Academy in Hoover, Ala.
He had two workouts — with the Bears and Falcons — but neither led to a job offer.
Williams considered beginning a real estate investment career.
“I had those workouts so I knew there was some interest,” said Williams, who is 6-4, 308 pounds. “I just had to stay in shape. I started looking around. You always know football is not going to last forever.”
The Bears invited him to a tryout camp in April 2018 and signed him to the 90-man roster afterward. He spent most of last year on the 53-man roster, but played in only two games.
Williams — who knew Nagy from their days together in Kansas City — said landing a job took a combination of factors, from fit to opportunity to luck. He seems to have found it here. He’s played 80 snaps this year — almost double last year’s total — and has recorded a sack in each of his two games.
“This NFL,” he said, “is a crazy business.”
Anderson — an undrafted player from Div. I-AA Bucknell — made his NFL debut Monday night mere hours after he was added to the active roster. He spent his rookie season on the Bears’ practice squad last year.
“When you’re undrafted, you’re quote-unquote not supposed to be here,” said Anderson, who is 6-3, 297 pounds. “I worked hard to get what I think I deserve.”
Monday night, that was 28 snaps. The first few felt odd, with nerves similar to his first college game, before he settled down.
Anderson called Hicks “the most unique player, I think, in the league,” while Robertson-Harris said he was a “bully on the field.”
“There’s no way we can replace Akiem,” Williams said. “The guys that have to play in his place, we have to do a great job with our technique and really bring the energy. Akiem is a bear out there on the field.”
He’ll be replaced by Bears.
“I hate that we’re kind of banged up on the D-line,” Williams said. “But we’re going to go out there and do what we do every week and prepare the right way and put our best product on the field. …
“We don’t want it to be a big drop-off.”
