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Bears defensive tackle Dusty Dvoracek missed his entire rookie season with a foot injury in 2006 and then suffered a season-ending knee injury in the 2007 opener. He only played in 12 games last season, missing the last four games with a ruptured right bicep.

Dusty Dvoracek had this to say about the upcoming season:

“My bicep feels great, my whole body feels great. It was somewhat of a long rehab, but it wasn’t very strenuous. My bicep is back to full strength. I have no restrictions whatsoever. I don’t wear any type of brace, nothing. I’m as strong as I was. I’d say I’m 100 percent.”

“It’s frustrating and I’m sick of it, and that’s why I feel this is going to be a year of injury-free football, it’s obviously not the way I wanted to go about my career in Chicago, and as frustrated as I’m sure the fans and the media seem to get with me, I get just as frustrated.

“But that’s over. That’s already happened. I’ve been hurt. I’m healthy now and that’s how I’m looking at it. If I dwell on it, nothing good’s going to come of that. I’m just excited that I’m to a point where I’m healthy and ready to go and I have a great coach like Rod Marinelli to make me become the player that I’ve felt I always could be and that I’m going to be, so I’m just excited about that opportunity.”

Dusty has two newspapers hung up in his locker for motivation. The headlines read: “Bears future cloudy for injury-prone Dusty Dvoracek,” and “Dvoracek’s season ends early again.”

Dvoracek had this to say about new defensive line coach Rod Marinelli:

“He’s the best teacher of football I’ve ever been around in my life, he’s so knowledgeable and he does such a good job of explaining what he’s talking about to players and breaking everything down. He tapes every single thing we do, goes over it and teaches us how to be better players.

“He hammers the pass rush like nobody ever. We work pass rush every day over and over. Not that the coaches before hadn’t done a good job. I just think he’s amazing.”

all quotes from chicagobears.com