Williams says expectations should be high

When it comes to confidence, wide receiver Roy Williams has an abundance, and he believes everyone else should have confidence in him as well.

“Expectations should be high,” he said. “I want them high. Talk bad about me. I appreciate it. But if I do well, please write that you're sorry.”

Sorry might describe Williams' preseason, when he had at least as many drops as catches (2 for 33 yards) and rarely seemed to be in sync with quarterback Jay Cutler.

Yet Williams remains in the starting lineup with the assumption that when the lights come on the nine-year veteran will make his presence felt.

Williams has had to re-learn the offense of Mike Martz, the one in which he flourished with the Detroit Lions in 2006-07 under Martz. But he says that's already a done deal.

“I'm fine. I've already been through that transition stage with Martz, and I know what he was talking about,” said the 6-foot-3, 215-pound Williams.

“And it does take awhile, but once you get it, it's pretty much etched in stone. I've been away from him for a while, but it's all the same. It's no different for me in my aspect.”

In his two previous seasons with Martz, Williams had 82 catches for 1,310 yards in 2006 and 64 catches for 838 yards in '07, despite missing four games with a sprained knee.

Midway through the 2008 season, the Lions traded Williams to the Dallas Cowboys, who gave up first-, third- and sixth-round picks to get him and then gave him a six-year contract worth $54 million that included $26 million in guaranteed money.

But Williams was a colossal bust in Dallas.

In the last three seasons, he averaged 37 catches and 519 yards, which has led critics to question how much he has left.

While others may be uncertain of how productive he can be at 29, Williams is not.

“Am I unsure?” he said. “Heck, no, I'm not. I'm good. I'm comfortable. I'm going to be ready to play, ready to make plays.

“I know that if I mess up or anything I know that it's going to get blown out of proportion. But I'm not the perfect player. I'm going to mess up. But other than that I'm ready to go.”

Williams says he always has been sure of himself.

“I've been sure since the third grade, my first year of football,” he said. “I've never been unsure about myself.”

Martz was instrumental in bringing Williams in on a one-year, make-good contract for $1.5 million that also includes an additional $960,000 that can be earned if he reaches certain incentives.

“He's ready,” Martz said. “He's in real good shape. He's back into what we do, offensively, the terminology, how we run the routes, all those things, and I think he and Jay have got a nice feel there.”

There hasn't been much evidence of that yet, but the Bears hope it's a different story starting Sunday.

Williams, who threw Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo under the bus when he was in Dallas, has been impressed with Cutler so far.

“He makes throws that I haven't seen in a long time,” Williams said. “Impressive. The ball that I dropped in Tennessee (which wound up being intercepted), he done whipped that thing in between I don't know how many people.

“I was surprised that it got through all that. I asked him the other day, ‘Man, what is your most impressive throw ever?' He was like, ‘Man, I've had a bunch of those.'

“That's a guy that you want to play for. That's a guy that you know is going to have your back and I have his.”

Time will tell.

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