Devin Hester signed on the dotted line on Sunday and thus ended his two-day training camp holdout. Hester’s new deal reflects the game-changing skills that he’s shown over the past two seasons as well as the possibility of him showcasing those skills at wide receiver for years to come as well.

Hester’s new four-year deal will extend to 2013. As reported by ESPN, the minimum amount of the deal is for $30 million which also has $15 million guaranteed. If Hester achieves certain accolades throughout the seasons to come, the incentives in his contract could bump-up to around $40 million! Not too shabby of a raise for a player who has a base pay for the 2008 season that is only $445,000. Except for the quarterback situation (that will require another column or two to dissect that mess), the Bears seem to have the table set going in to training camp and eventually preseason. The number one pick (offensive tackle Chris Williams) signed just recently, Brian Urlacher got paid to stay a Bear for a few more seasons, running back Kevin Jones signed last Tuesday, and now Hester is ready to take-on more offensive responsibilities.

With the increase in salary, Bear’s fans will be expecting Hester to produce early and often in the upcoming season and demonstrate that he was worth the cash. Hester’s speed and explosiveness will always make him a threat for every kick return, but now those tools will need to be transferred to his new role as wide receiver as well. Now only will his catches need to increase, but fans will also expect for his fumbles and drops to decrease.

Ultimately Hester can’t rule whether the opposing kicker will kick towards him nor can he control which quarterback is going to pass him the deep ball, but what he can control is his route running, which will need to be keen and precise because he’ll warrant a lot of attention whenever he goes to the line of scrimmage. If he doesn’t succeed in those aspects quickly then fans will start to question his lucrative contract right away. Judging by Hester’s first two seasons and John Madden’s lofty award of giving Hester the very first perfect 100 for a player’s attribute (speed) in his video game, there doesn’t seem to be any appearance of Hester slowing down and slacking this season. But of course why would Hester slow down now? He hasn’t done so since joining the NFL.

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