Bears' Moore appreciates the attention

At Halas Hall, there are two full practice fields at the Bears' disposal.

When it's time to do work by position, the defense takes over the south field. The secondary heads toward the west goal post, the linebackers go toward the east goal post, and Julius Peppers' linemen crew gravitates toward some grass off the grid.

Only one player on the entire squad receives 1-on-1 attention: nickel back D.J. Moore.

Head coach Lovie Smith commandeers the middle of the south field during the early portion of each practice and puts Moore through his paces before sending him along to work with the secondary.

Smith and Moore also meet individually on a daily basis to break down tape and review the playbook.

While that sounds like a stressful situation for most second-year guys who haven't proven much in the NFL, there are two reasons that's not the case.

For starters, Moore claims Smith's stoic nature goes away in the meeting room.

"It's pretty laid-back," Moore said. "He tells jokes and whatnot."

Then there's Moore's nearly peerless dose of self-confidence.

When the 5-foot-9 Vanderbilt product was chosen in the fourth round of the 2009 draft, Moore talked about how he went later than deserved.

During the final month of last season, when Moore had seen action in just one game, he suggested that he was good enough to play already and promised he'd play a much bigger role in 2010.

During OTAs, Smith told Moore he'd give him a chance to battle with Corey Graham for the nickel-back job. That's all he needed.

"I was being confident in myself (last year), but I knew I could play," Moore said. "I knew I wasn't going to go about it like I did last year (when I rarely dressed), I was going to change it up.

"Sometimes it's just not your time. But when it's your time, step up. Either you're playing or you're at home."

Judging by his performance last week at Dallas, when he intercepted 2 deflected passes and held up wideout Roy Williams long enough for Charles Tillman to rush over and strip the ball, Moore indeed has found a home.

"He hasn't played a lot of football, so it is easy to say that is his best game," Smith said. "But he definitely played winning football. That's what happens sometimes when you're just running to the ball playing hard."

Moore expects to play more against Green Bay on Monday night than he did against the Cowboys. The Packers use more four- and five-receiver sets than Dallas.

Not too long in the future, as one might expect from Moore, he intends to trade in his nickel job to become a starting cornerback for the Bears.

That's no knock on Tillman or Zack Bowman, by the way. Just Moore's matter-of-fact confidence at work.

"Next year, I'm going to be shooting for it," Moore said. "We've got nice guys there. Everybody knows that. If you're not playing now, you want to play. It's going to be healthy for somebody to be trying to come for a position."