Andrew Billings – Third year defensive tackle
Andrew Billings is a welcomed face on the defensive line. After two seasons in Cincinnati, Billings decided to travel north and take a job with the Browns for this upcoming season. Billings is still young and brings a lot of experience with him from his time with Cincinnati, which will benefit him while fitting in with his new team.
In his first two seasons, Billings put up some consistent numbers that helped him see a majority of the snaps on defense. In 2018, he started all 16 games and had 32 tackles, 22 of those being solo, 2.5 sacks, eight tackles for loss, and seven quarterback hits. He played in 632 snaps, accounting for 56 percent of the defensive snaps.
In 2019, he missed 10.3 percent of his attempted tackles over his 657 snaps played, which accounted for 61 percent the of defensive snaps. He played in all 16 games, starting in 14, and had 35 tackles, 18 of them solo, one sack, four tackles for loss, and four quarterback hits. His stats don’t blow you away, but given that he played for the worst NFL defense the last two years, it’s nice to see consistency over a year of development.
Billings was brought in for depth. He’s not the greatest pass rusher and doesn’t get a lot of tackles. That being said, he can clog some run lanes to let linebackers or other linemen come to finish the job. With the recent addition of our next new member of the Browns, he could see a lot less playing time than he did in Cincinnati. But if an injury occurs, you can count on him to be a decent piece in the rotation.