Bears’ DT Harris readies for comeback

LAKE FOREST, Ill. – Concerns? Tommie Harris has a few.\nThey won’t disappear until the Pro Bowl defensive tackle makes his first cut or delivers a hit in the Chicago Bears’ opener at San Diego on Sunday.\n“If you broke your arm and you went out to do something, wouldn’t you (think) ‘I remember the feeling of this being broken,’” said Harris, who underwent season-ending surgery on his left hamstring last December. “That’s kind of going to hinder you from doing that same movement for a while. So you’ve got to break yourself and get over the fear, and then you’ll be able to do everything the same. You just have to trust your surgeon and trust that everything went right.”\nFor now, he’s still a bit hesitant.\nHarris is an exception in a locker room where confidence is flowing like champagne after a championship victory. The Bears came up a win short last season, losing to Indianapolis in the Super Bowl, and their expectations are soaring.\nWide receiver Rashied Davis looked around the locker room and said, “What weaknesses? I don’t see any.”\nLinebacker Brian Urlacher said this about a defense that has ranked among the best the past few years: “I think we’re better than we were last year on defense.”\nHarris won’t argue.\nHis concerns are centered on himself, and they’re more mental than physical. He wonders how he’ll respond when he takes the field on Sunday, not whether the Bears are good enough to make it back to the Super Bowl.\nThe defending NFC champions can cite numerous reasons why they think they’re better on both sides of the ball.\nQuarterback Rex Grossman has a full year of experience as a starter, after being limited by injuries in 2004 and 2005, and he has no shortage of targets. Muhsin Muhammad and Bernard Berrian lead a deep set of receivers that includes a healthy Mark Bradley, and first-round draft pick Greg Olsen gives the Bears another pass-catching tight end to go with Desmond Clark.\nOn defense, the Bears point to the addition of strong safety Adam Archuleta and defensive tackle Darwin Walker, who replaced the troubled Tank Johnson. And they point to their health.\nHarris’ season ended when he slipped on wet grass during the game against Minnesota on Dec. 3, ripping his left hamstring from the bone. It was the second major blow for the Bears – who had already lost safety Mike Brown to a foot injury six games into the season. And the defense wasn’t the same, slipping to fifth after being ranked No. 1 for much of the season.\nThe swagger never returned even as the Bears made that run in the playoffs, and the Colts rolled up 430 yards of offense in the Super Bowl.