Last year MLB Brian Urlacher publicly stated that his season would not be as good as normal without Dusty Dvorcek being on the line.  He praised Dvoracek's ability to eat up the front lines blocks allowing him to attack the runner.  Urlacher can be happy, because at least for now Dvoracek is back and will should see extensive playing time in tonight's game.

Dvoracek at his best is a disruptive force. The 6-foot-3-inch, 303-pound defensive lineman showed flashes during his short stint against the Chargers last season. He was credited with five tackles, including one for a loss, before suffering the ACL tear—while setting the wedge on special teams, no less.

"It was unfortunate how it happened," Dvoracek said, "but I don't think I'll be playing special teams anymore."

With the Bears now set at two skill positions (QB and RB, unless Kevin Jones comes out with a bang), the Bears need to decide who will line up with them.  Wide receiver Brandon Llyod still is gunning for the #1 spot.

Brandon Lloyd leads all Bears wideouts with 5 catches in the preseason, and his 56 yards are second on the team to tight end Kellen Davis' 80 (on 4 catches).

But Lloyd isn't taking anything for granted as he prepares for Thursday night's game against the San Francisco 49ers, the team that drafted him in the third round out of Illinois in 2003.

"I'm still searching," he said. "We'll find out when the preseason's over."

Indy QB Peyton Manning is still working toward an opening day start against the Bears.

"I've not really had a whole lot to say, to tell you the truth," he said. "As to when I'll be back on the practice field, that's still to be determined. Obviously, the sooner, the better for me. My goal is to be back for the first game."

The Colts are in one of if not the toughest division in the NFL, plus they have their annual New England Patriots battle.  They need to get the wins they are heavily favored in .  The Bears are helping the Colts open up their new stadium and starting backup Jim Sorgi would destroy any momentum they might build up.

When Chris Williams underwent surgery last week most thought it was only a matter of time before John Tait found himself back on duty on the left side, but it seems the Bears are not planning on making that move.

'I just look at how they are playing. I don't look at the number of starts or who played where,'' Hiestand said. ''We are different every year. You are different, I am different. You don't stay the same. What they did in the offseason to prepare to play the positions they are playing right now -- the amount of repetitions that has gone into their work to get to the point they are right now is incredible. Nobody has any idea how many hours they have worked on their craft from that side.''

During practice Monday safety Brandon McGowan went down with an ankle injury.  It is not thought to be anything more than a basic sprain, but when any injury creeps up at the safety spot it becomes a big deal.

"We can't have an injury at any position, particularly on the back end," Bears secondary coach Steven Wilks said. "That's why you have backups, and we feel we have qualified guys in Payne and Steltz."

Bears players are still taking the high road after former Bears receiver Muhsin Muhammad felt the need to trash talk his former team.

"'Bernard Berrian came here and developed and became a rich man,'' receivers coach Darryl Drake said. ''Everybody is entitled to their opinions. I love Moose and hope that he continues to have an illustrious career. We're going to do what we do here. That's our feeling.

''I'll give him a great big hug, right around the neck [when they meet in Week 2] because I love him.''

Newcomer Brandon Lloyd said Muhammad's reaction is natural. Lloyd was critical of the 49ers after they traded him to the Redskins in 2006. ''You say bad things when you're hurt,'' Lloyd said.

Rashied Davis said Muhammad was upset when he was cut, a move that saved the Bears a $500,000 roster bonus.

''I don't think receivers go to die here,'' Davis said. ''I've been making myself here.''

Offensive coordinator Ron Turner also wanted to stay out of the action.

''I could say a lot,'' he said, ''but I won't.''

The Bears were planning to go into camp with Devin Hester and Brandon Lloyd as their starting wide receivers.  With a hold out by Hester, Marty Booker stepped in and ran with the first team.

The Bears lack experience at the wide receiver spot.  Only Marty Booker has more than 3 years experience with meaningful playing time. What the Bears do have is a lot of speed and a ton of potential.  Hester, Bradley and Lloyd all have high end speed.  They also are carring two promising rookies.

The Bears current roster of wide receivers looks like this:

Devin Hester
Marty Booker
Brandon Lloyd
Rashied Davis
Mark Bradley
Earl Bennett
Marcus Monk
Mike Hass
Brandon Rideau

Hester, Booker, Lloyd and Bennett are probably locks at this point.  Based on OTAs the Bears have probably seen enough good out of Monk to keep him. Rashied Davis was the Bears top performer during OTAs, I'd like to see them keep him.  At least he is familiar with the play book.   I don't know how many recievers the Bears are going to run with, so Hass and Rideau are either cuts or practice squad players.  Mark Bradley is the X Factor.  The Bears seemed intent on marking him a starter going into this year, but with his latest surgery the Bears don't know when he will be ready.

Let's take a look at the numbers of those with NFL experience:

(numbers after the jump)

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Bears offensive coordinator, Ron Turner, has stated that Devin Hester and Brandon Lloyd will open training camp at the reciever spots with the first team offense.

Currently neither is listed as the #1 recevier and considering the group we have at recevier, it is anybodys guess who will end up holding those spots.

``At all the positions right now, I'm not going to tell you who they are,'' Smith said of his top secret depth chart. ``We're going to go out on the football field and play and once we feel like everyone needs to know, we'll let you know then. If I know it a little bit earlier am I going to tell you, no.''

In other training camp news.  The Bears have opted for a coin toss to decide who will open with the first team at QB.  This is a typical method used by teams.

Also, to save the legs of Robbie Gould and Brad Maynard, punter Zac Atterberry, will be handling a lot of the punting and place kicking during training camp.

In a follow up after the OTAs, this report makes a few observations and suggestions.

Among them that the Bears should consider looking at recently waived LeCharles Bentley to fill our left guard position.  Bentley is a bit prima donna for my tastes, but if he is willing to accept a non-blockbuster contract I don't argue this.

Also, the Bears apparently tried to pick up Tampa QB Bruce Gradkowski off of waivers, but did not get him.

Based on OTA performances, Devin Hester and Brandon Lloyd would be our starting two wide receivers.

I know that the mini-camps and OTAs resemble flag football more than the real thing, but Brandon Lloyd and Devin Hester have looked like the most legitimate, dangerous NFL wide receivers the Bears have.

Hester always drops mouths with his explosion, but Lloyd has lived up to his billing as a great practice player. If that trend continues once the pads go on July 24, Mark Bradley may go from being the guy the team thought could be its No. 1 wideout to someone just hoping to make the roster.

Bears promote Kevin Turks to assistant director of pro personnel.

Turks is in his eighth year with the Bears' personnel department, the last six as an assistant pro scout.

Turks was a linebacker at North Carolina State from 1995-98.

At least one person thinks the Bears should bring in recently released RB Travis Henry.  What about you?

Just released by Denver, Henry would give us an experienced back and some real competition for Benson in the backfield. Henry does have some issues, but they're nothing compared to Benson's baggage. Henry is also young enough to stick around awhile. Just a couple years ago, he was putting up solid numbers with Tennessee.

I say bring in Henry, let him compete with Benson and Forte for the starting job, and use Peterson exclusively on special teams. As usual I don't expect anything big from Mr. Angelo, but hey, at least we have Briggs back.

Recently signed receiver Brandon Lloyd's contract has officially come off the books for the 2008 season.

On Tuesday, the contracts of Mike Wahle and Dan Morgan in Carolina, Kalimba Edwards in Detroit and Brandon Lloyd in Chicago came off the salary cap books. They were pre-June 2 designees, which gave the players time to find a new home in February and March but gave the three teams the freedom of taking the cap hits for their departures in 2009.

Bears wide receiver coach Darryl Drake has said that he feels the receiving corp in Chicago is better than the one last year .

He feels there is a lot more explosiveness on the field now.  While this initially seems like it might be a dig at Berrian, really it is just a statement that the Bears overall talent pool has improved as a whole. While no one Bears receiver will likely duplicate Berrian's numbers this year, there is not reason to think that the squad will not be able to cover it.

Last year the Bears were pretty much just Bernard Berrian and an occasional bomb to Devin Hester.

This year though we replace the no longer sure handed Mushin Muhammad with the sure handed Marty Booker.  Hester will get a full camp in at the wide receiver position and rookie's Earl Bennett and Marcus Monk are both playing surprisingly well.  And from early reports Brandon Lloyd is working hard to regain his career and if he can catch on it gives the Bears another burner at the position.

While at the beginning it was assumed the Mark Bradley would be the default winner of the #1 receiver spot, there is now a possibility that when he is recovered from his knee surgery he could be fighting just for a roster spot.

But the Bears might get production from an unsuspecting place, though I don't know why he was written off to begin with:

'But the best player for us probably out on the field has been 81 [Rashied Davis],'' Drake said. ''He's quicker, he's faster, he's stronger. He puts more fear in them -- you go ask those guys on defense who puts fear inside them.''

Two years ago, Davis was clutch and a big piece of the puzzle, but last year he was lost and it looked like this year he might find his way off the team, but I guess he has something to say about that.

Last year's sqaud that had a record catch are:

Bernard Berrian, Mushin Muhammad, Devin Hester, Mark Bradley and Rashied Davis

This year's squad looks like this:

Devin Hester, Mark Bradley, Earl Bennett, Marcus Monk, Brandon Lloyd, Rashied Davis, Marty Booker

This makes Curtis Hamilton, Mike Hass and Brandon Rideau and possibly Bradley ,depending on how many receivers we carry,  cuts or practice squad  players.

Obviously not having Berrian is a big hole, but despite their overall youth, I like the looks of this squad.  At least as much as I can for not having really seen them play many games.

Add to this that Desmond Clark is still solid and Greg Olsen should have a bigger role.

If either Grossman or Orton can have a consistently decent year, the Bears can do some damage.

Last week it was mentioned  that with the impressive play of Earl Bennett and Marcus Monk that newly signed Brandon Lloyd might get let go before he even played a down.

It has was also assumed that Mark Bradley or Devin Hester would fill the number 2 receiver spot next to Marty Booker.  Apparently that has all gone by the way side.

Mark Bradley had arthroscopic knee surgery this month and might not be back in time for the start of training camp.

During camp Brandon Lloyd filled the number two spot.  If Bradley isn't ready that leaves Lloyd, Hester and Bennett to compete for the #2 spot.

I am not sure where this leaves Rashied Davis in this equation.

Matt Forte wasn't the only rookie to impress at Bears rookie mini camp. Vanderbilt receiver Earl Bennett despite a shaky start and Marcus Monk from Arkansas both impressed.

The Bears’ work-in-progress WR corps is widely considered ordinary at best, with the team’s OTAs set to begin early next week. With that in mind, the consensus among team insiders is that both rookie pass catchers Earl Bennett and Marcus Monk — drafted in the third and seventh rounds, respectively — have an opportunity to make their presence felt fairly quickly. That much was expected from Bennett, who excelled at Vanderbilt in the tough Southeastern Conference, but not necessarily Monk, who according to recent rookie minicamp observers, was more consistently impressive than the receiver the Bears drafted four rounds earlier. Bennett got off to a shaky start in the minicamp, appearing to have a bad case of the jitters initially, but he steadily improved as the camp wore on, to the point where he was catching every pass thrown his way by the time the final day had been completed. Monk, meanwhile, caught everything in sight from the get-go, according to one close observer. “He could be a serious sleeper,” the observer told PFW. “He doesn’t have a lot of speed, but his size (6-4, 222) and hands could make him a real red-zone weapon.”

 

The article then goes on to put out that the two might lead to the Bears releasing newly signed Brandon Lloyd.  They follow by suggesting that there are rumors floating around Halas Hall that that might be the case.

I am pleased to see that Bennett and Monk are instilling such confidence, but I just can't see Bears releasing Lloyd unless he has some off the field incidents between now and then or gets shown up at training camp.  Aside from Marty Booker the Bears don't have anybody who has a lot of experience as a starting receiver.  Devin Hester, Rashied Davis and Mark Bradley have all had playing time and might have a start or two under their belts, but nothing more significant.  Lloyd despite what skills he may or may not have has been at least a #2 in the league for a few years, that does count for something until somebody else proves they are the better option.