Minnesota wide receiver Bobby Wade shared an alleged conversation he had with Brian Urlacher about Jay Cutler. "Jay Cutler is a good player," Wade said. "Obviously, it's a much different environment going from Denver to play in Chicago. Chicago is a tough club to play for. What is so funny, I actually saw Brian Urlacher this past weekend in Las Vegas, and we had a long conversation. I don't want to get him in trouble, but it wasn't what [the Bears] expected. Pretty much [Urlacher] said Jay Cutler was a [deleted], for the most part." The deleted word begins with the letter 'P'. Urlacher told the Tribune: "That's just Bobby being Bobby. That's just stirring it up before camp."

Donald Driver isn't impressed with the Bears' receiving corps. "They don't have a receiver," Driver said on the "Waddle & Silvy" show on ESPN 1000. "They don't have any true receivers that step up and play and take their team to where they want to go." Strangely enough, Driver has a relationship with Chicago's Devin Hester. "I love Devin, and Devin knows that, but Devin plays [defensive back]. I don't think he's just a solid receiver right now. He may become one as years go on, but it doesn't happen overnight," Driver added.

Chicago's Devin Hester appears willing to give up kick returning at some point. "I think a return man simply has to be a return man," Hester said. "There's really no other position he should go out and play. A return man is a totally different ball game from trying to be a return man and starting receiver, or the starting cornerback, or a starting safety. I don't think it's going to work. That's why you never really see it last that long in the NFL. You can't do it. "But with me right now, I feel like at punt returns there are going to be opportunities where we're going to need big returns," he continued. "With all the success we've had at the return game, it would be real crazy to just give it up now. Plus I'm looking to break this record. In the back of my mind, I've got to get this record before I give (punt returns) up." He enters the 2009 season with 11 career kick returns for touchdowns, two shy of Brian Mitchell's NFL record.

Bears general manager Jerry Angelo feels as though linebacker Brian Urlacher can return to Pro Bowl form this season. "Brian spent the whole offseason here, and that's a big thing for me personally to have him train with us because when he played his best football for us he was here in the offseason," Angelo said. "The last two years he wasn't here for varying reasons. That's part of it, not all of it. But he did look good in OTAs in terms of his movement. There are some things that I'm sure he's going to be more focused on to do better than what he had done maybe last year. But I feel that he can get back to a Pro Bowl level. He expects that of himself and we expect that of him as well."

Caleb Hanie's experience in Chicago's offensive system gives him a slight edge over Brett Basanez as the team's primary backup quarterback behind Jay Cutler heading into training camp, according to sources.

Steve McNair volunteered to prep Jay Cutler before the Senior Bowl, since the offense his North team would be running was coached by the Titans coaching staff. "Mac met with me on two occasions, and he would have stayed there with me all day, as long as it took for me to learn the offense. I'll never forget that, and that just shows you the type of guy he was,'' Cutler, now with the Chicago Bears, said of McNair. "That was going to be a big step for me to go there and play well. Ever since then I have thought of him as a friend.''

William 'Refrigerator' Perry's health is improving, according to his brother. Perry spent more than a month in the hospital this spring due to complications from Guillain-Barre syndrome, a disease where the body's immune system attacks its peripheral nerves. "Baby steps I call them," Michael Dean Perry said Wednesday. "But we can see improvement."

The Bears appear to have backed off in their pursuit of free-agent wide receiver Plaxico Burress. Chicago linebacker Brian Urlacher isn't surprised that the team is backing off. "I was surprised when I heard they were going after him at all because as a player, I [know there will be] some type of suspension," Urlacher said Thursday. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has yet to decide on a punishment for Burress. "My first thought with [Burress] was, would he even be able to play this year?" Urlacher said. "You have to wonder how long you're going to have him or when he's going to be available. "[But] he's a great receiver [and] I would have been open to it."

The Bears remain $17.67 million under their adjusted salary-cap figure of $135.9 million, which means the organization has committed 86.99 percent of its cap to this point and there is plenty of room left over for spending. Plaxico Burress is an unlikely option due to the penalty coming his was from the NFL. This could become the perfect window for Chicago to come to a long term agreement with Jay Cutler. Cutler remains under contract for three more seasons, but he has a $12 million roster bonus in 2012 that the team would probably like to avoid.