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.