Williams signs five-year deal

Bears first-round pick Chris Williams proved to be a man of his word when he agreed just before noon Wednesday to a five-year, $15 million contract that includes $9 million in guaranteed money, just hours before the start of the first practice of training camp at 3 p.m.

Williams said after the draft that the word "holdout" wasn't in his vocabulary.

"I was here," Williams said after Wednesday's practice. "If a man doesn't have his word, he really doesn't have much of anything. I told them I'd be in camp, and both sides did the best they could to get me here on time."

Williams, the 14th overall pick, is expected to be the opening-day starter at left tackle, but he must prove in training camp and the preseason that he's a better option than veteran John St. Clair, who is currently No. 1 in the depth chart. Williams took snaps with the second team Wednesday.

"You start from the bottom no matter who it is," Bears coach Lovie Smith said. "We haven't seen you, we don't know enough about you. You work your way up from there. Now, when you draft a player like Chris, you have an idea what he should end up. (But) it's a contact sport. We've never seen Chris Williams in pads. So we have to at least see that and put him through some of those paces and go from there."

That's fine with Williams, although he believes he can soon be a starter.

"I have the mind-set to be ready," he said, "but there's a lot of hard work between now and the first regular-season game. I just have to keep working and leave it up to the coaches."

Missing from action: Besides holdout Devin Hester, four other Bears did not practice Wednesday.

Six-time Pro Bowl center Olin Kreutz (Achilles) and recently acquired running back Kevin Jones (knee) are both on the physically-unable-to-perform list. Starting nose tackle Dusty Dvoracek (calf) and rookie guard Chester Adams (stomach) are on the non-football-injury list. All four are eligible to be activated at any time, and the Bears indicated none of the injuries were serious.

"Olin missing a couple practices right now, there's not a whole lot of cause for concern," coach Lovie Smith said. "He eventually will be OK. (Dvoracek) doesn't seem like it's a significant injury. It's not. He'll be fine."

Kreutz has missed just one regular-season game since the start of the 2001 season and that was in 2002, seven days after an appendectomy. He had a procedure last week to help alleviate chronic aggravation in his Achilles.

"I've dealt with this for about eight, nine years now," he said. "I just wanted to try something new with it."

Good and bad: Rex Grossman worked with the first string Wednesday and showed some of the up-and-down play that has characterized his career.

In seven-on-seven vs. the first-team defense, Grossman led Marty Booker perfectly, and the veteran wipeout kept trailing cornerback Corey Graham at bay with his left hand before reaching out to make the catch. Two plays later, Grossman was picked off by cornerback Nate Vasher, as fans booed.

Kyle Orton will direct the first-team offense in today's noon practice.

Graham was filling in for Charles Tillman, who had an excused absence.