There's an article on the Bengals website that's praising Billings and maybe giving us a hint that he could see the field sooner rather than later.

He seems hungry to get to work and wants to get in and improve on his already impressive skills:

Quote:The kid likes to jam after hours. He took a mere week off after the Bengals’ last spring workout on June 16 before he went back into his precious weight room. Then he joined local strength coach Clif Marshall at the Ignition Training Retreat in Florida during the first week of July, where he worked with such veterans as Panthers Pro Bowl middle linebacker Luke Kuechly.

“Usually rookies don’t make that trip. He’s one of the first ones. He reached out to me,” says Marshall, the disciple of Bengals strength coach Chip Morton who has run 350 players or so through the Ignition gym in Mason, Ohio since 2008.

Marshall's a great guy, and there's a few more promising quotes from him in the article, so, if he has Cliff's blessing, he has mine

I've been watching this kid's highlights and been wondering how the hell he fell to us in the fourth round, but I'm thinking we could maybe be looking at another case like Geno's where we got a steal, which I'm not saying he'll be THAT good, because that's high praise, but he seems like he's pretty darn good.

His one weakness on his scouting report was his size, which, ok, play Peko on running downs and bring Billings in on passing downs and his size won't matter because he won't need to be taking on double teams and staying stout, he'll just have to run past linemen.

I'm loving this and think that he could do big things for our D! Kid's a hard worker, so I think we could see us having the best defensive tackle duo in the NFL once he sees the field more and gets his feel into the NFL! Our pass rush will be a NIGHTMARE for Big Ben and every other offense we face!

He will see it @ every Game and Every Practice.....

Not sure how much he will play though...

When I watched the draft most people said Billings fell because he was a two down run stuffer which in today's game you don't value as high. I can see him occasionally rotating in for Peko during the season. I think Hardison will be their inside rusher next to Geno on passing downs. But I think he was a great pick in the 4th round and will be a good player for us.

Love reading about his enthusiasm, and desire to get ready for the pro game. However, I hope he doesn't over train, that is how injuries begin.

My vote is.. probably. I'm still not convinced Pat Sims will make the team. Atkins, Peko, Thompson, Billings, Hardison, will likely be their 5 DTs. So in that scenario he'll be fighting Thompson for snaps, so pretty good chance he'll get some decent playing time. Maybe like 20-30% of the snaps so long as there's no injuries.

(07-22-2016, 06:02 PM)SunsetBengal Wrote: Love reading about his enthusiasm, and desire to get ready for the pro game.  However, I hope he doesn't over train, that is how injuries begin.

I never thought about that, especially since he's only 21.  His body may or may not be done growing and, even if it is done growing, it might be vulnerable to injuries since it's just finishing growing.

Early on I expect he's see little action, but has the season progresses I expect to see him more and more.

I think this is the year we start to see more of a rotation with Peko.

Sure, we've seen it before when we had depth. But as time went on we would lose players to injury and even FA (such as Gilberry, Sims, you get the idea).

Think Billings will get around 25-30% of defensive snaps by the end of the year. And honestly, think he could be the starter by 2017.

(07-22-2016, 05:03 PM)lone bengal Wrote: When I watched the draft most people said Billings fell because he was a two down run stuffer which in today's game you don't value as high. I can see him occasionally rotating in for Peko during the season. I think Hardison will be their inside rusher next to Geno on passing downs. But I think he was a great pick in the 4th round and will be a good player for us.

(07-22-2016, 06:09 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: My vote is.. probably. I'm still not convinced Pat Sims will make the team. Atkins, Peko, Thompson, Billings, Hardison, will likely be their 5 DTs. So in that scenario he'll be fighting Thompson for snaps, so pretty good chance he'll get some decent playing time. Maybe like 20-30% of the snaps so long as there's no injuries.

Sims and Thompson may be vying for the last spot.

Brandon tThompson is recovering from a torn ACL. Since it just happened in January I assume he will start the season on PUP.

The Bengals are talking about using Hardison as a DE/DT hybrid.

DeShawn Williams got a lot of hype last year, but we still haven't seen him performm much in real games.


I think Billings is a bit overrated by soem around here, but there is a real good chance that he plays some in a regular rotation this year.

Hope he plays often because that would mean he earned it amongst top talent.

Do not expect to see him more than 25% of the time unless he is just a beast in camp and preseason.

(07-23-2016, 11:01 AM)Go Cards Wrote: Hope he plays often because that would mean he earned it amongst top talent.

Do not expect to see him more than 25% of the time unless he is just a beast in camp and preseason.

Well, they obviously just weren't going to give him playing time based on his college tape.

Nate must be on vacation, otherwise I would expect to see a "BILLINGS!!!!!!" post in here...


Realistically, I don't expect much from him as a rookie. As long as he continuously improves and doesn't make glaring mistakes, I'm fine with him getting playing time.

(07-23-2016, 10:12 AM)fredtoast Wrote: Brandon tThompson is recovering from a torn ACL.  Since it just happened in January I assume he will start the season on PUP.

The Bengals are talking about using Hardison as a DE/DT hybrid.

DeShawn Williams got a lot of hype last year, but we still haven't seen him performm much in real games.


I think Billings is a bit overrated by soem around here, but there is a real good chance that he plays some in a regular rotation this year.

We haven't seen him perform at all in real games.

Did he ever leave the practice squad last year?

Being a rookie on a Marvin Lewis team with proven veterans at the same position I doubt it. I want to see it. But he would have to have Peko or Sims say hey coach Billings would beat my ass and is a difference maker, maybe you should let him play.

I expect we will see him gradually get more playing time in the 2nd half of the season or hardly any at all.

If I was Marv I would think long and hard about when I would deploy my rookies. A lot of rookies talk about hitting a wall mid-way through the season during their transition from college ball to pro ball. So let them hit the field later they might make an impact later in the season when it's teeth cutting time and it the chips are all down.

Let's use this logic. I can't remember much about Atkins' first year. Did he replace someone that left and was used right away like Bodine was? If not, how much did he play the first season?

If Atkins wasn't replacing someone, and was used a lot the first year, I think Billings will be too. With Peko ahead of him, he may not be used as much, but this new DL coach claims he wants to, ideally, keep them fresh.

(07-24-2016, 12:04 PM)bengalguy71 Wrote: Let's use this logic.  I can't remember much about Atkins' first year.  Did he replace someone that left and was used right away like Bodine was?  If not, how much did he play the first season?

If Atkins wasn't replacing someone, and was used a lot the first year, I think Billings will be too.  With Peko ahead of him, he may not be used as much, but this new DL coach claims he wants to, ideally, keep them fresh.

He got practically zero playing time until John Thornton went to Marvin and stated that Geno was way better than himself and deserved to be on the field in his place.

(07-24-2016, 12:30 PM)jfkbengals Wrote: He got practically zero playing time until John Thornton went to Marvin and stated that Geno was way better than himself and deserved to be on the field in his place.

Well I guess that gives us our answer.  Unless Peko does the same, I think he will play sparingly, it really depends on how this new DL coach feels about him and about keeping fresh guys on the field.  

First half of season it will probably be just here and there. 2nd half of season I'd say they'll be working him in a good bit.