For those who are lifelong Chicago Bears fans, you’re familiar with the “Peanut Punch” from Charles Tillman as he terrorized opposing wide receivers that weren’t careful with the football. In his career, Tillman forced 44 total fumbles as he mastered a way to punch the football out.
And now he’s being called upon by Bears head coach Matt Eberflus to teach his defense just how to master that trait as well.
Eberflus recently appeared on Peter King’s podcast to talk about his time with the Bears so far and on there he brought up the fact that he’s called several former Bears players. Among them were Brian Urlacher, Julius Peppers, Dick Butkus, Lance Briggs and Tillman, among others. From there, he revealed that Tillman might be among some players that are planning on coming to a Spring practice and will help teach the “Peanut Punch” to his players.
Here’s what he said via Bears Digest:
“That was pretty special,” Eberflus told King. “You look at your phone, you’ve got (Mike) Ditka, (Dick) Butkus.”
Eberflus said Butkus texted him back.
“Then you have Julius Peppers, (Brian) Urlacher, (Lance) Briggs, you know, it’s truly amazing. Tillman, Peanut Tillman, hopefully he’s coming in for a spring practice to talk to the team.”
King wanted to know if Tillman might be persuaded to give a lesson in how to deliver the Peanut Punch.
“Oh, he’s going to,” Eberflus said, laughing.
If you’re going to put an emphasis on takeaways, there’s no better group of guys to do so than the Bears team’s of the 2000’s and early 2010’s. Especially a guy like Tillman who made a living forcing takeaways along with his coverage skills.
Don’t be shocked if we see an uptick in forced fumbles from this Bears defense in 2022…. and now we know the reason why.
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