Peppers playing a big role in education of Chris Williams

BOURBONNAIS - Defensive right end Julius Peppers has spent a good portion of training camp taking young left tackle Chris Williams to school.

Peppers, however, is doing more than just by beating him with a variety of pass-rush moves - he's also eaching Williams how to become a better NFL player.

But don't bother tossing any accolades to Peppers for Williams' improvement. He's not accepting them.

"I can see that he's getting better, but I'm not taking the credit for it," Peppers said. "He's being coached by a great coach (Mike Tice), and I think that's helping him get better. We're competing against each other hard every day, so I owe him, (too). Not only is he getting better, but I'm getting better going against him."

How does a five-time Pro Bowl player benefit from working against a youngster with five NFL starts at left tackle?

"Just having to bring it every day in every drill because I know he's a great player," Peppers said. "You compete against good tackles in practice and you get better."

Peppers was asked if Williams was learning how to hold like an NFL offensive lineman. "Oh, all of them know how to hold," Peppers said, laughing.

Forget about it: When it comes to offensive coordinator Mike Martz evaluating quarterback Jay Cutler, even something as inconsequential as Saturday's preseason opener is more important than anything that occurred last year.

Cutler threw a league-worst 26 interceptions in 2009, along with 27 TDs, but that's ancient history to Martz.

"I haven't discussed at all anything about last year with Jay," Martz said. "Really, it just has no bearing on anything today. We don't talk about it. We don't think about it. It's never really crossed my mind."

Except when he's asked about it, and asked about Cutler's struggles in the red zone, which has been often.

"I feel like I know what Jay is and who he is to where I'm not concerned about (last year) at all. If you ever watch our red zone stuff out here, he's just been lights out. I'm very pleased with his ability in the red zone. I don't worry about that with him at all."

One-two punch: The off-season addition of unrestricted free agent running back Chester Taylor has given the Bears the kind of experienced, quality depth that has been lacking for years. But Matt Forte remains the main man when it comes to carrying the ball.

"Matt's our guy," quarterback Jay Cutler said. "When we run in Chester, Matt's (still) our starter. But it's hard to go through a 16-game season with one back. You've got to have a change-up guy. You've got to have somebody else in there to take some carries and some pressure off of him."

Can't resist: Even though he hasn't had a kickoff- or punt-return touchdown in two years, Devin Hester's presence on the field in those situations still creates a buzz.

Now that he's a full-time receiver, Hester is limited to returning only punts, and coach Lovie Smith doesn't like to court disaster by using him in that role in the preseason. Hester got just 1 opportunity last year and took it back for 54 yards.

"If I'm back there, they just want me to fair catch," Hester said. "I don't know what the plan is for this preseason, but I always try to sneak one or two in."