Zacch Pickens Specializing at Nose Tackle

Bears defensive tackle Zacch Pickens hasn't played his first NFL preseason game yet and he already is becoming a bit of a specialist on the defensive line.

The former South Carolina defensive tackle is being steered to nose tackle by the Bears coaches, at least for now. When drafted in Round 3, the 71st pick overall, Pickens was thought to be a three technique at defensive tackle and not the nose tackle.

"Right now, I'm learning the nose position," Pickens said. "Strictly all I'm doing right now is learning the nose."

He'll be playing there while second-round pick Gervon Dexter Jr. or seventh-round pick Travis Bell line up at the three technique when the Bears host the Tennessee Titans in Saturday's preseason opener.

The rookies will be on after the veterans get a restricted amount of playing time.

Like with Dexter, the Bears broke down the rookie and sought to build him back up with NFL basics from the outset.

"Right now, I'm working on my stance," Pickens said. "At South Carolina, we were more of react-attack. I come here, we all attack.

"So, getting my feet right, getting my feet from standard to a slight tilt just to fire off the ball, especially when it's pass, get out of my run stance to get in a pass stance, little things we working on that I'm improving on."

The three rookie defensive tackles have their own little group working and learning under veterans Justin Jones and Andrew Billings on the line.

"Me and Gervon, we always had a little connection because we always see each other and we always speak to each other," Pickens said. "We both get drafted at the same time, same team and our connection is starting to grow. We're starting to appreciate each other, hanging out a little bit, communicating on the field, especially when we are on the field together. "Besides Dexter, it would be T-Bell. Travis Bell. Whenever we're out there, we communicate. We do the same thing. Me, T-Bell and G, we got a good friendship going on."

While they're learning plenty, linebacker T.J. Edwards doesn't necessarily view them as neohpytes.

"Yeah, you don't really notice them being rookies," Edwards said. "One is they're really big dudes up there and so they can really do some good things. The biggest thing for them is just learning from the vets in the room, you know learning from those guys and you can see it every day in terms of, the biggest thing in terms of the D line right now is them getting on the stat when the ball is thrown.

"We need them down field if big plays break and things like that every single day you see them just working, running to the ball and I think you know being a rookie it's easy to just kind of just be so scrambled to get your job done and forget about the little things and you don't see that with them."