For a few seconds Friday afternoon in Bears practice, all eyes focused on No. 23 as he rose slowly following a collision in the secondary with safety Major Wright during non-contact scrimmage without pads.
Devin Hester received a little assistance from trainers in making it to the sidelines with an ankle injury, but later returned.
"Its nothing major," Hester said, no pun intended.
Obviously Hester's health is always of concern to the Bears' special teams and with what they hope will be a multiple-threat offense. He could finally also develop as a receiver the way the team has long hoped. The idea this year is to get him 20 to 25 passes for bigger gains rather than increase his reception total.
Although the ankle injury was termed minor, any such injury is of concern with Hester. He had a lower leg injury late last season and then aggravated it. His game suffered, which is to be expected with a player who depends so much on speed and cutting for his productivity. As a result, he had only five catches over the final nine games. It also affected his punt return game. He averaged just 8.45 yards per 11 returns the final seven games after averaging 21.2 the first nine games on 17 returns.
Hester just shrugged off the practice incident. He was able to return to the field and finish.
"If you don’t expect accidents, then you shouldn’t play football," he said. "It’s just the nature of the beast. There are going to be accidents, even if we’re playing touch.”
Througout OTAs and the start of camp, Hester is one of the Bears named most often by players and teammates as making an impressive start in a new offense. The Bears have rarely been able to find a way to isolate him on short passes and convert them into the same type of scenarios that let him be a breakaway threat in the return game.
Hester thinks this time in Mike Tice's offense, it will be different. "When I catch the ball I want to accelerate and make guys miss and that is my biggest goal this year when I
get my hands on the ball," Hester said. "I want to explode out, and every time before I go down I want to make two or three guys miss."
Follow Bears reporter Gene Chamberlain on Twitter: @CBSportsNFLCHI.
