NFL: Cincinnati Bengals at Chicago Bears
USATSI

Two members of the Chicago Bears 2024 draft class seem to have a cheeky sibling rivalry of sorts. Of course, the crown jewel of that group was quarterback Caleb Williams, who was selected No. 1 overall. That pick came as no surprise as Williams had been earmarked to hear his name first for the past couple of years. However, hearing Iowa punter Tory Taylor come off the board in the fourth round was much more of a jaw-dropper. 

Outside of the sheer surprise that the Bears picked a punter so high on Day 3, it was revealed that Williams had already messaged him upon the selection with a message that quickly went viral. 

"Hey, you're not going to punt too much this year," Williams wrote Taylor in a text after he was drafted.

Well, it seems like Taylor remembered that early interaction with his new quarterback and made sure to bring it up amid Chicago's Week 2 preseason matchup against the Cincinnati Bengals. There, the Bears opened the game with up three straight punts with Williams under center, which led to HBO's "Hard Knocks" cameras catching Taylor ribbing Williams on the sideline for the early work. 

"I thought you said no more, like no punts," said Taylor. "We had three in the first quarter, man." 

"Tell me about it," Williams answered.

"It's just preseason," Williams continued, before saying in jest: "We want you to work in the stadium."

Williams was able to lead the Bears offense to two scoring drives following that flurry of punts by Taylor, and Chicago ended up running away with the exhibition, 27-3. So, the rookie punter didn't see as much work for the rest of the game as he did out of the gate. While the Bears did invest rather heavily to bring in Taylor, they likely feel just as their new quarterback and hope they won't need to utilize him much once the regular season rolls around.