BOURBONNAIS, Ill. – After saying following the draft in April that the word “holdout” wasn’t in his vocabulary, Bears first-round draft pick Chris Williams proved to be a man of his word.

Rookie Chris Williams signs his first NFL contract Wednesday at Bears training camp in Bourbonnais.

The rookie left tackle from Vanderbilt agreed to a five-year contact Wednesday, hours before the Bears were set to kick off training camp with a 3 p.m. practice.

“If a man doesn’t have his word, he really doesn’t have much of anything,” Williams said after participating in the non-contact workout. “I told them I’d be in camp and both sides did the best they could to get me here on time.”

Although Williams practiced with the second team Wednesday as he did throughout the offseason program, he’s being groomed to start and knew that reporting to training camp on time was crucial.

“You can’t miss days of practice, especially with me being a rookie,” Williams said. “I didn’t want to fall behind at all, even though we’ve done some of this stuff in OTAs. Every day I get out here and get on the field is going to make me better.”

Bears coach Lovie Smith was elated that the Louisiana native reported to training camp on time.

“We would have definitely been concerned if he would not have been out here,” said Smith, who hails from Texas. “We anticipated him being here. He said he would be here. Most guys from the South, when they give you their word, they stay with it.”

Williams, who was selected with the 14th overall pick in the draft, became the 12th and final member of the Bears’ 2008 draft class to sign his contract.

“We’re real happy to have Chris signed,” said general manager Jerry Angelo. “His people and [Bears lead negotiator] Cliff Stein did a great job hammering out the last details.

“We reported [to training camp] a little bit early and everybody kind of wants to be the last guy [to sign] to make sure they’re not leaving any nickels on the table. But we came to a real good deal and everybody was happy with it.”