"Forget all the Clay Matthews talk. There's another player in the NFC North who deserves serious consideration for defensive player of the year, if you ask Brian Urlacher.

And the Bears linebacker isn't referring to himself.

"Julius Peppers is the league's defensive player of the year. Write that,'' Urlacher said. "You look at Pep, I mean maybe the sacks aren't all the way there yet, but he has the numbers. He gets double-teamed every play. He doesn't have as many sacks as (Matthews) does, but I think he's the guy.''

When told about Urlacher's comments, Peppers couldn't help but smile.

"It means a lot coming from him because he was one of the main reasons I came here to play,'' Peppers said.

"But we still have four more games left. Those types of things will take care of themselves at the end of the season.''

Peppers, the NFC's defensive player of the month for November, is tied with Israel Idonije for the team lead with seven sacks — 4 1/2 fewer than Matthews. But one could argue Peppers has had just as much of an impact, if not more, with his relentless rushes and ability to sprint down the field to make tackles."