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Sniping at Hester? Save it, says wideout coach Drake

BOURBONNAIS - Do not get Bears wide receivers coach Darryl Drake started.

He doesn't want to hear any of the negative chatter about wide receiver Devin Hester being a poor route runner.

"When people say he's not really a good route runner, boy, that is ignorance at its highest level," Drake said. "Who says that he's not really a good route runner?

"I guess it's people who haven't been out there watching him run a route or watching his body control. If somebody says that, that tells me how really nonvisual football (intelligent) that they are."

Hester ran his routes well enough last year to lead all Bears receivers with 757 yards and all wideouts with 57 catches.

If he continues to improve at the same level he has for the past three years, Hester has a legitimate shot at becoming a 1,000-yard receiver. He was on pace for that milestone last season before a calf injury hobbled him for the final quarter of the season.

So, that business about Hester not being an "elite" receiver, that's another place you don't want to go with Drake.

"It bothers me that you even ask me that," he scolded a reporter, half in jest, fully aware that the question was meant to push his buttons. "It's the same thing I've been hearing for years. You ask me that all the time just to (mess with) my nerves. But I don't even think about that. He can be as good as he needs to be."

Hester spent part of his off-season becoming all he can be by working with future Hall of Fame wide receiver Isaac Bruce, who retired in June at 37. But not before making four Pro Bowls as a key member of the St. Louis Rams' Greatest Show on Turf under the direction of Mike Martz, the Bears' new offensive coordinator.

Bruce holds the Rams' career records with 942 receptions, 14,109 receiving yards and 84 touchdowns. He finished his 16-year career with 1,024 receptions, 15,208 yards and 91 touchdowns.

Bruce will be helping all the Bears assimilate Martz's offense starting Wednesday and going through the end of camp. He already spent almost a month earlier in the off-season mentoring Hester at St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., near Hester's hometown.

"That was my whole mentality for working with Isaac, to get a feel for what Mike Martz's expectations are for the 'Z (position),' because I play the Z," Hester said of the receiver position that often has him in motion before the snap.

"I worked really hard with him, and I just told him, 'Just take me through the ropes of how you became the great receiver you (were),' and he basically taught me all the things he could in the amount of time we had.

"I hope I can bring it to this table and hopefully learn from it."

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