Payne making hard-hitting gains

BOURBONNAIS - With starting strong safety Brandon McGowan out with an ankle injury, Kevin Payne took all the first-team reps in Tuesday night's practice.

"Kevin Payne's a good football player," coach Lovie Smith said. "He blended in. When you move up to the first team, you don't want to stand out, especially in a negative way. He has a lot of talent, good size, good speed, can catch the ball. We're expecting big things out of him this year, too."

The Bears got their hopes up last year when Payne had an excellent training camp and preseason after being drafted in the fifth round out of Louisiana-Monroe. He started the fourth regular-season game as a third safety but suffered a season-ending shoulder injury in the game.

During Tuesday night's practice, which was by far the most physical of camp, Payne tossed Marty Booker to the ground, which didn't go over well veteran wide receiver.

"I was just concentrating on getting the ball out," Payne said. "When I watch the film later, maybe I'll see I pulled him down too hard; I'm not sure. But I like contact, so I always love going full speed."

Nothing special: In each of the past two years, the Bears' special teams have been the best in the NFL, according to a comprehensive Dallas Morning News ranking system. But there wasn't anything special about their play in the preseason opener, when they committed 5 penalties.

"Like I told the players, I thought we were very sloppy," special-teams coordinator Dave Toub said. "Five penalties is a lot, even though it's preseason. It's still a lot of penalties. The most frustrating thing was it was a lot of veteran guys. We talked about it, we saw it on tape, and we won't make those mistakes again."

The infraction that bothered Toub the most was an illegal block above the waist by Trumaine McBride on a Chiefs punt that was way out of bounds.

Enforcer wanted: Special teams coordinator Dave Toub lost his Pro Bowl coverage specialist Brendon Ayanbadejo to the Baltimore Ravens in free agency, but he's encouraged by the performance of some younger players who could pick up the slack.

"Nick Roach has had a really good camp," Toub said of the second-year linebacker from Northwestern. "He's lined up in a lot of spots that Brendon played, and he's stepped it up. Rod Wilson and Corey Graham have had good camps also."

Graham was second with 20 special-teams tackles in 2007, and Wilson was third with 16. But Ayanbadejo led the Bears with 26, despite attracting a lot of attention from opponents.

"He drew the double-team a lot of times, and he'd still make the tackle," Toub said. "Somebody's going to have to step up and be the guy who is the enforcer, the guy who comes down and everybody has to block. We just have to find who that guy is. We'll find out soon enough."