With rookie safety Wright, Bears will take things slow
Rookie safety Major Wright has been back at practice full speed for almost a week after having the surgical pin removed from his broken finger, and he could challenge strong safety Danieal Manning or free safety Chris Harris for their jobs before long.
"Hopefully in time you'll have hard decisions with every position," coach Lovie Smith said. "That's saying that a lot of people are playing well.
"(But) we're just getting (Wright) into the mix right now. The plan for Major, when you come off the injury list, we start working you back into the flow, and that's how we're doing it right now."
Winning a starting job isn't Wright's focus for now.
"Right now my role on the team is to go out there and play special teams and do whatever I can to help," the third-round pick said. "I played a ton of special teams at Florida, punt (and) kickoff coverage, kick return.
Some rookies, especially those who didn't play on special teams in college, treat that assignment as a chore, but not Wright.
"I take pride in that," he said. "That's another phase of the game."
Wright could get some snaps at either safety spot today, but he said he's not sure what his role will be on defense.
Flip the script: Some offensive playcallers script the first several snaps of a game - Bill Walsh used to script the first 15 or so - but Mike Martz takes a different approach.
"I have a pretty good idea of the plays we want to get to right away," Martz said. "(But) they're not scripted."
Martz says the preseason isn't an accurate indicator of what will happen when the games count.
"We're preparing our guys for something we didn't see," Martz said. "So we carry a significant package into each game. You may have to change the third play. If it goes as planned, then great, then you kind of stay with those things. But you have to be flexible and change gears sometimes.
"We try to in my mind have an idea of what we want to get to, maybe not a real order, but we're going to get to these plays," he said. "Sometimes situations change that, too."
Team guy: In his previous 10 seasons, Brian Urlacher has been voted to the Pro Bowl six times and won the NFL's Defensive Player of the Year award and the Defensive Rookie of the Year award. Anymore, he says, his personal goals are team goals.
"The Super Bowl," he said. "Playoffs. Individually, I really don't look too much into that anymore. Just try to win games. That's all I really worry about."
Mr. Amazing: Julius Peppers has made such an impact with the Bears that even other Pro Bowl players are looking forward to watching him in the regular season.
"I've seen what he can do in practice," Brian Urlacher said. "Preseason games don't mean much, but I did see his explosiveness out there. He's a great athlete. He's a phenomenal football player. He knows things out there. He sees things happen before they happen and it's going to be fun to play behind him."