Alex Brown's wrath cools as he gets more playing time

BOURBONNAIS -- Defensive end Alex Brown came to camp an angry man, having lost his starting spot on the right side to Mark Anderson -- but Brown seemed in a much better mood after Friday's penultimate practice.

"You know what? I'm fine," he said. "We've got a great team here. We'll all play; the coaches have shown that, and we'll see what happens after that."

Brown should get plenty of snaps, filling in for Anderson and left end Adewale Ogunleye in what is expected to be a three-man rotation. Brown, who at one point seemed to be coveting a trade, is optimistic about the Bears' chances of taking the final step this season.

"I want to win the Super Bowl," he said, "and to go anywhere else, I don't think there's another team out there that can beat us. We'd have to stop ourselves. At every position we've got somebody that can totally take over a game and dominate (on) offense, defense and special teams. So we've got a chance. There's some things you can't control, (like) injuries, but we've been fortunate to get out of training camp (so far) without any injuries."

Still the same: The six-year, $41 million contract that cornerback Charles Tillman said he signed shortly before training camp put him in a much higher tax bracket, but the fifth-year veteran said it hasn't changed him.

"I don't think it changed me as a person, as a player or as a teammate," he said. "I'm going to come out here and work hard every day. I'm going to go full speed. I'm trying to get better, trying to help the team win. I'm going to do my small part.

"I feel that I've still got to pay my dues. Obviously I must have done something right for the Bears to come in and re-sign me, so I just have to keep doing what I've been doing in the past, and that's just work hard and pay the price."

Paying for anything is a lot easier these days for Tillman, who said he doesn't believe he and Vasher, who recently signed a five-year, $28 million deal, have to justify their salaries.

"I don't think we have to prove anything to anybody," Tillman said. "I just think he needs to go out there and play well, I need to go out there and play well and the rest will take care of itself."

Going deep: With only today's closed morning workout remaining before camp breaks, coach Lovie Smith is more confident in the depth of his roster than at any time in his four years as the Bears' head coach.

"It's the deepest one we've had," he said. "We have to see how it turns out, but we talked a lot about getting our 53-man roster as strong as we could. I would definitely say that is the case. We have good backups. You want to get in a situation where, if you have injuries, it's not a big drop-off. I think we're getting closer to that."

Forget about it: Free safety Mike Brown didn't get to play in Super Bowl XLI because of a foot injury that required surgery, and he has no desire to watch a replay of the Bears' 29-17 loss.

"Every time we see a clip of it, we're all groaning," Brown said. "We don't like looking at it. Very rarely will we even turn it on, even when we're watching film for corrections or anything. We've seen maybe 10 plays of it, just to see what we could have done better and things like that. I know I haven't watched the full game over again. Why? Why would you want to see that?"

Injury report: Rookie cornerback Trumaine McBride, who was sporting a protective walking boot on his left foot Friday to alleviate pressure on his injured toe, missed practice, as did linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo (shoulder) and Mark Bradley (knee). Defensive tackle Tommie Harris dressed but was mostly an observer.