Flying under radar just fine with Clark

A lot of attention will be on rookie tight end Greg Olsen if, as expected, the Bears' first-round pick is healthy enough to play in his first NFL game after missing two weeks with a sprained left knee.

Desmond Clark, the Bears' starting tight end and second-leading receiver will, as usual, remain obscure. The nine-year veteran from Wake Forest insists that's just fine with him.

He claims he doesn't want it trumpeted that, since the start of last season, his 13.3 yards per catch is the second-best average among all NFL tight ends.

It's better than the Chargers' Antonio Gates, the Chiefs' Tony Gonzalez, the Browns' Kellen Winslow, the Cowboys' Jason Witten, the Colts' Dallas Clark, the Ravens' Todd Heap and the Giants' Jeremy Shockey.

But keep it on the down low.

"Y'all gotta quit pulling out these stats because nobody expects me to do anything," Clark said with a huge smile. "Everybody just expects me to be this bumbling tight end, so I like that perception. Just let everybody keep thinking I'm not doing the job good enough, keep reporting that we have to go get (another) tight end. Just keep that stuff going because that way I get to fly right up under the radar, and I can keep doing what I'm doing out on the field."

It's not that Clark resents Olsen. He's mentored the rookie for months, and the Bears have added a lot more two-tight end formations to the playbook to utilize the talents of both players.

"That's one part of the offense that we've been missing, that we've been excited to have this year is Greg in there doing the two-tight end stuff," Clark said. "He'll add another dimension and give (quarterback) Rex (Grossman) another option in the passing game, and hopefully just open some things up for the offense."

Olsen's presence may allow Clark to go even more unnoticed, which seems strange considering he averaged 13.9 yards on 45 catches last season for a career-best 626 yards and 6 touchdowns. Clark was a wide receiver at Wake Forest, where he ended his career as the Atlantic Coast Conference's all-time leading receiver and as a senior set a school record with 72 catches.

"I was told that going into a game (this season) that they viewed me as still being a wide receiver, so expect me to do a lot of cut blocking," Clark said. "I haven't been a wide receiver in (over) nine years. But people still have perceptions, and no matter what you see on film, if you've got something in your head it's hard to get away from it."

As long as Grossman knows who he is and where to find him, Clark's content to be a man of mystery to the rest of the league.

"My quarterback knows what I am," he said. "It's just everybody else, I want them to have those not-so-great perceptions of me."