The third episode of Hard Knocks aired on Tuesday night, meaning we got another (carefully manicured) look at the Chicago Bears during their 2024 training camp. As with others before, this episode recaps the previous week’s events and culminates with some preseason game action.

That means this episode featured footage from shortly after the preseason road win at Buffalo through the home victory over the Cincinnati Bengals.

RELATED CONTENT:

• Kyler Gordon, Tremaine Edmunds detail source of ‘uncommon’ Bears defensive chemistry
• Caleb Williams’ potential, professionalism made Bears believers
• Bears report: Montez Sweat’s expanded role, Caleb Williams’ status vs. KC, a camp scuffle and more
• Watch full Bears coverage on the Marquee Sports Network app

As you might guess, quarterback and No. 1 overall NFL draft pick Caleb Williams was the star of the show. He’s clearly the main character – as he should be, considering his position and status – and it’s obvious that his hype train is reaching full speed.

There were some telling moments in this episode, however, especially the surprising detail surrounding the Matthew Judon chase and Tory Taylor segments. So while we’ll talk about Caleb a bunch in these takeaways, let’s start with a behind-the-scenes look at the trade the Bears couldn’t quite make:

Details from how Bears tried to land Matthew Judon

The Bears wanted to trade for former New England pass rusher Matthew Judon. That much is clear from the latest Hard Knocks episode. In fact, it sure seems like they had a deal in place with the Patriots to secure rights to the four-time Pro Bowler with 66.5 career sacks. It was presented, according to footage aired in the show, that a deal was contingent on the Bears completing a contract extension with Judon.

The Bears were willing to part with a third-round pick for the productive veteran, but he ended up going to Atlanta for the same trade asset. The Falcons haven’t extended him to this point, meaning he could become a free agent at the start of the next league year. Or, like the Montez Sweat deal between Chicago and Washington, an extension could be struck shortly after the trade. Time will tell on that front.

It was clear from the footage aired that the Bears weren’t worried about Judon’s 2023 biceps injury and thought he could return to previous form. The Bears came off confident they would acquire Judon, but that didn’t ultimately happen.

“Our (trade) language is basically saying that, if he doesn’t sign, he reverts back to New England,” GM Ryan Poles said while mic’d up in his office.

No extension, no deal. And that’s what happened.

“We try to do a really good job of creating parameters that make sense for our club, that put our club in position to be successful now, but also down the road,” Poles said in a Hard Knocks testimonial.

Then the scene cuts and Poles, now speaking to director of football administration Michael Feinstein, says, “I’m tormenting myself, but, if you have your own guardrails that we put up to help us stay in the lane, we surely pressed up against them to acquire the player. But when it comes to losing all flexibility, I don’t think that would be smart. If he has success – now if he has 20 sacks or something, yeah, it’ll make me sick.”

The scene cut again, to Poles, back in the testimonial: “I don’t want to get the club stuck in a position where we have a player that’s here, we’ve given up a draft pick and we haven’t had a resolution on a contract.”

Caleb Williams hype train is off and running

Rookie quarterback Caleb Williams has been the focal point of this documentary from the beginning, so it’s no surprise that pattern continued into an episode that featured his insane, off-balance, deep strike to Rome Odunze and that unreal seven-yard touchdown scamper – both of which were beautifully shown with sideline angles and editing – against the Bengals.

That even led to a corny quip (a Hard Knocks staple) where narrator Liev Schreiber read, “Expectations aren’t just high. They’re stratospheric.” Not exactly great writing, but the hyperbolic prose was accurate, nonetheless.

We then hear a montage of media members gushing over Williams with bombastic terms and over-the-top predictions for someone who has never played a regular-season snap.

Contrasting that with calm, analytical meetings between Williams and head coach Matt Eberflus was a nice touch. The pair have met regularly thus far and were shown discussing ways to improve while identifying previous signs of progress and nothing more, human moments far away from the hype that gets larger all the time.

Williams’ conclusion after a post-Bills-win meeting?

“Practice is harder than the game.”

The episode showed some good moments behind the curtain with Williams, especially when his helmet speaker kept cutting out during the first quarter of the Bengals game. While we should not take the leap of assuming Williams’ early troubles were due to that issue, it was interesting to see a glimpse of the sideline procedures and discussion detailing all a player goes through during a game that fans don’t know about.

Tory Taylor as Scottie Scheffler?

Fourth-round punter Tory Taylor got lots of air-time in this episode. As someone who just started following the Bears, I didn’t know his story. Hard Knocks told it well.

My main takeaway: he could be a tremendous asset if he’s as good as he came off in this episode. Taylor was awesome in these cuts, with game-changing types of punts on display.

“Sometimes it’s like golf,” Taylor said while mic’d up. “You’re just on; you’ve just got your feel.”

There was a cut from broadcaster who made a Scottie Scheffler comparison, which is quite something. If Taylor’s a similar master of his craft, that could positively change a game (or more) for the Bears this season.

He was also part of a fun exchange with Williams, who had previously said, “you aren’t going to be punting much.”

Then after consecutive three-and-outs against the Bengals, Taylor started this funny exchange with Williams;

Taylor: “I thought you said no more punts. We had three in the first quarter, man.”

Williams: “It’s just preseason. I wanted to get you a couple.”

Taylor: “I appreciate that, man.”

Follow Bears Insider Scott Bair on X @ScottBairNFL.