CHICAGO _ As Taylor Gabriel remembered it, he begged for a job.
This was more than four years ago, before Gabriel caught three passes for 76 yards in Super Bowl LI with the Falcons. Before the Bears decided his upside was worth a four-year, $26 million contract. Before he set a career high with 104 receiving yards on seven catches in his fourth game in a Bears uniform.
Gabriel was an undrafted rookie tryout hoping to stick with the 2014 Browns.
"A camp body," he said. "Somebody there to fill up the numbers so the draft picks don't run out and hurt themselves."
Gabriel was the one who hurt himself, injuring his hamstring on his second day. But he wasn't ready to give up, so he walked into Browns general manager Ray Farmer's office and laid out a promise.
"I told him if he would give me an opportunity to come back and get healthy, it would be the best thing he has done that year," Gabriel said.
Confidence is seemingly a prerequisite for NFL wide receivers, and the confidence Gabriel has brought to the Bears is borne from early experience.
It comes from showing throughout his life that his success can be bigger than his 5-foot-8, 165-pound frame. It comes from having a mother and father who believed in him from the time he was a 6-year-old Texas youth player running for a touchdown on his first career carry.
And it also comes from a deeper, more painful place, where he learned to channel the support of his mother after she died suddenly of a brain aneurysm when he was 15.
"That had to be one of the top worst things that could happen to a person," Gabriel said. "So mentally overcoming that, I felt like I can overcome anything."
