Just before safety Kevin Byard III went to bed Saturday night following the Bears' first training camp practice, his phone went off.

It was a text message from fellow safety Jaquan Brisker. He wanted to know if Byard noticed anything on film from the workout that he should be aware of.

"I just want to see what he sees and vice versa," Brisker told reporters Sunday. "I want to be on the same page, especially since he just came in. I want to be on point. I want to be the number one defense, the number one secondary, so I want to make sure everything is right."

Brisker is entering his third NFL season and has been vocal about his goals for the Bears defense, particularly the secondary. The Penn State product said the unit now refers to themselves as 'The Avengers' because 'we've got a lot of superheroes out there.'

The secondary's four returning starters — Brisker, Jaylon Johnson, Kyler Gordon and Tyrique Stevenson — each play a large role in the unit's confidence, but the addition of Byard has been just as impactful.

"His presence is felt every single day, especially his vet presence [and] especially in the meeting room," Brisker said. "He's very vocal. He's talking, he's trying to tell [us] what he sees and things like that. I feel like that's very important especially for us and the DBs just so we see what he sees."

While Byard's leadership is helpful for the entire defense, it's been an especially crucial piece in his developing relationship with Brisker.

During OTAs, Byard took notice of Brisker's eagerness to learn and increased confidence. After spending time together through the offseason program and, now, the beginning of training camp, the pair have strengthened that bond even more.

"[Brisker] is a guy that reminds me of myself when I was a younger player," Byard told reporters Sunday. "Very hungry. He wants to be All-Pro, and I love that about him. He wants to be the best, and that's how you have to be. Every single day, we're always talking. We're trying to get our communication down to a point where we can just look at each other and already know what we're talking about. But it's been good so far. Like I said, excited to work with him this year."

Now entering his ninth season in the league, Byard understands that the nonverbal chemistry between two players requires patience and experience in live situations. He remembers that taking a season or two to develop that type of relationship with safeties like Kenny Vaccaro and Amani Hooker earlier in his career with the Tennessee Titans.

As Byard's career has progressed, he has found it easier to mesh with whichever safety has been beside him. While that chemistry between Byard and Brisker has the potential to develop quickly, the veteran isn't putting a timetable on it.

"[It's] really just kind of learning each other's play styles — what he likes to do," Byard said. "Obviously, [Brisker] is an aggressive guy, he wants to go down in the box, he wants to blitz, he wants to do those things. So sometimes you've got to just give them the freedom to do what they want to do. But at the same time, switch it up and kind of give the quarterback a different look to try to keep guys off balance. … We're just gonna keep trying to feel each other out and have fun."

The key to Byard and Brisker's success as a pair on the field will be utilizing their versatility to confuse the opposing offense. During the first two training camp practices, Brisker said he and Byard have been able to work on several disguises and play off each other well, which he says make it feel like "we have been playing together for so long."

Earlier this summer, Brisker noted that he and Byard worked on switching between free and strong safety. Byard believes that ability to alternate between the two spots will allow the defense to give different looks than what's on film.

"I think in this league, quarterbacks, offensive coordinators, watching film, you're just trying to get a beat on a team by alignments, disguises and things like that," Byard said. "You're going to see certain quarterbacks that have seen so many different coverages, they're just going to be able to look at a guy, see where he's aligned and say, 'I know what this coverage is.' So the more we can switch it up, the better. And that will change week by week depending on the teams we play, whether there's blitzes and things like that — it will change up."

As Byard and Brisker continue to gain comfortability with each other on the field, they'll be key contributors in a secondary filled with talent and experience.

Coming off a season where the unit helped the Bears tie for the league lead in interceptions, the group is hungry to be even better this year.

"We want to establish the physicality out there that nobody can mess with us," Brisker said, "and then show our ballhawking ability, our play-making ability. Everybody has it. And we're really just trying to put our foot down this year and show them what we've got."