Briggs says Urlacher doesn't need advice

With his two-year contract battle well behind him after agreeing to a six-year, $36 million deal March 1, and with the financial spotlight now on fellow linebacker Brian Urlacher, Lance Briggs says he's no longer the "hated man."

"When you're in a contract dispute, you're viewed as selfish and many different things," said Briggs, who skipped most voluntary off-season work the previous two years while posturing for his deal and can sympathize with Urlacher. "Even though that is a fact, that you're thinking about yourself, no one else is really going to think about you but you.

"No one else is going to take care of you like you. In football, the way things work, if you've outplayed your contract, you've outplayed your contract.

"It doesn't matter if you've been making a lot of money. You're a marquee player and everyone knows what our marquee player (Urlacher) has meant to not only this team but this city and this organization. Football players know -- in this business you know exactly what your value is, and it's time to get a new deal."

Briggs said he doesn't need to offer any advice to Urlacher based on his own, sometimes acrimonious, negotiations.

"I don't really need to tell him anything because he already understands," Briggs said. "He's been in this league a lot longer (three years) than me. So, as far as the business side, he understands probably better than I do."

New world order: Kyle Orton and Rex Grossman split snaps on the first of three days of minicamp practices Friday, but Orton's snaps came with the first team, while Grossman guided the second team. That situation will be reversed today, as it has been from day to day throughout organized team activities that began two weeks ago.

Unlike last season, Orton is competing for the No. 1 job and has three late-season starts from the previous season to build on. He did not take a single snap in 2006 and came to training camp in 2007 entrenched as the No. 3 quarterback behind Grossman and Brian Griese.

"It's always tough when you come into a season without playing at all the season before," he said. "To get the three games at the end of (last) year and get a lot of work in so far in the off-season, I feel like I'm a better player."

Signings: Tight end Kellen Davis, defensive end Ervin Baldwin, guard Chester Adams, linebacker Joey LaRocque, tackle Kirk Barton and wide receiver Marcus Monk all signed deals Friday. Davis was a fifth-round selection, while the others were taken in the seventh round.