Too early to worry about attendance at workouts

Speculation about who is and is not attending voluntary — emphasis on voluntary — workouts at Halas Hall have been swirling, to which I can only say:

It’s April. Relax, everybody.

“First off, these are all voluntary workouts going on right now,” Bears coach Lovie Smith said before defensive lineman Israel Idonije was presented with the Ed Block Courage Award during a luncheon at Maryville Academy on Tuesday. “We would like to have everybody here every day to get a chance to work together as a team but it’s never like that. We have over 80 percent of our players here, maybe even about 95 percent of our players here right now. That’s a great number. Would we like to have 100 percent? In time we hope to get that.”

Mark Anderson may or may not be attending workouts even if many of his fellow restricted free agents negatively impacted by the expiration of the collective bargaining agreement are skipping them in protest. Teammate Danieal Manning may be taking a different tact.

Did Desmond Clark miss a workout earlier this week. Does that mean the tight end is no longer in the Bears plans? Is he disgruntled? Or maybe he had a dentist appointment, a sick child or an out-of-town wedding to attend.

It’s easy to read too much into who is and isn’t pumping iron at Halas Hall, especially since the baseball season has only dawned.

“I’m taking attendance and I’m not alarmed by anybody that isn’t here right now,” Smith said. “The guys who aren’t here right now, I know where they are and I think in time we’ll get most of the guys here.”