The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Billings adds beef to team’s run defense
Ex-Bengal figures to be part of rotation with Richardson, Ogunjobi
Ex-Bengal Andrew Billings figures to be part of rotation with Sheldon Richardson, Larry Ogunjobi.
The defensive line, former coach Freddie Kitchens said repeatedly a year ago, was the strength of the 2019 Browns, but like every most facets of the team, it did not meet expectations.
End Myles Garrett was suspended indefinitely (he has since been reinstated) on Nov. 15 and missed the final six games. End Olivier Vernon, acquired for guard Kevin Zeitler, missed six games with a knee injury and produced only 3.5 sacks in the 10 games he played.
Sheldon Richardson finished third in tackles with 62. His sidekick, Larry Ogunjobi, was sixth with 50 tackles and had 5.5 sacks — good numbers for the pair of defensive tackles, but the Browns allowed an average of 5.0 yards a carry, which ranked 30th in the 32-team NFL.
Though the poor run defense wasn’t all on the defensive line — maybe that 5.0 per rush average had something to do with General Manager Andrew Berry being unwilling to give Joe Schobert $11 million a year like Jacksonville did — stopping the run does start up front.
Improving the run defense was behind the Browns’ decision to sign defensive tackle Andrew Billings in free agency. Billings, 6-foot-1, 328 pounds, started 30 of 32 games for the Bengals the last two seasons. If nothing else, he will be part of the interior defensive line rotation with Richardson and Ogunjobi.
“Any defensive line in the NFL, there is definitely going to be a rotation,” Billings said on a recent conference call.
“From the jump Day One, I think everything is going to be earned. You have to earn your way into the rotation. Just because they sign you doesn’t mean you’re going to get to play. I have to earn my way up to that rotation.”
Ogunjobi will be on his third defensive coordinator in three years — Gregg Williams in 2018, Steve Wilks in 2019 and now Joe Woods. It will be five in five years for Richardson because he was with the Jets in 2016, Seattle in 2017 and the Vikings in 2018.
Woods is obviously new for Billings after four years in Cincinnati.
“I feel great about (the Browns’ starting defensive line),” Billings said. “To go out there and play with those guys, it’s always a good place to be surrounded by good people, good talent and people to learn from. I feel it’ll be a great opportunity for me. I’m just going to try to soak up as much as I can.”
There will be many moving parts around the NFL once teams are allowed to begin offseason programs. No one knows when that will be as all NFL facilities are shut down due to the novel coronavirus.
Teams with new coaching staffs are affected the most. The Browns’ offseason program, led by first-time head coach Kevin Stefanski, is scheduled to begin April 6, but that won’t happen.
“Really with defenses, everybody runs the same stuff. It’s just how you do it,” Woods said at his introductory press conference. “Everybody is going to run three-deep, everybody is going to run man, man pressure and fire zone, but I think it’s about how you put the package together.
“I want to make sure I give offenses a lot of the same looks but play different coverages and make them figure it out at the line of scrimmage. That’s always kind of been my mindset, so that’s what I’m going to try to do here.”
Billings and the rest of the defense will start from square one once the Browns and the rest of the NFL get the allclear signal to reconvene.