The Chicago Bears found a new weapon for coach Ben Johnson’s offense.
The Bears selected Michigan tight end Colston Loveland with the No. 10 pick in the 2025 NFL draft on Thursday night.
Loveland, at 6-foot-6 and 248 pounds, is an elite pass-catching tight end and the type of chess piece who can move all across the formation and still be dangerous. He totaled 56 catches for 582 yards and five touchdowns last season and was a key target for the Wolverines offense during the 2023 run to the national championship.
“It’s not just one part of the game,” Bears general manager Ryan Poles said. “It’s the complete totality of what he can do for us. When you turn on the tape, there’s plays being made constantly.”
The Bears made Loveland the first tight end selected — notably, ahead of Penn State’s Tyler Warren, whom many draft analysts considered the top tight end in this year’s draft.
Both tight ends were expected to go early in the draft. The Indianapolis Colts wound up taking Warren four picks later.
“We just felt the alignment from coaching, scouting, everybody that touched both players, that (Loveland) was the best fit for us,” Bears senior director of player personnel Jeff King said. “We aren’t comparing players — both of those guys are going to have really good careers — but Colston was the best fit for us.”
A native of Gooding, Idaho, Loveland watched the draft at home with more than 100 friends and family in attendance.
He will pair with veteran Cole Kmet to give the Bears offense a one-two punch at tight end. Johnson, the former Lions offensive coordinator, loved using two-tight-end sets in Detroit. Adding Loveland to the mix gives him the flexibility to do that in Chicago.
Loveland said he had his first significant meeting with Johnson around the time of Michigan’s pro day in March. Loveland was well aware of what Johnson accomplished in Detroit.
At one point, Johnson asked Loveland who some of his favorite tight ends were. Loveland mentioned a few names, then made sure to add Sam LaPorta, whom Johnson and the Lions drafted in the second round two years ago.
“Coach Johnson was like, ‘You remind me a lot of him,’” Loveland said.
Bears fans would be thrilled if Loveland can have the type of instant impact LaPorta had in Detroit, where the former Iowa Hawkeye was a second-team All-Pro as a rookie.
Johnson clearly values the tight end position. The combination of Kmet and Loveland should give him a chance to flex his creativity as a play designer.
“They have a little bit of complementary skill sets, but also for us it’s being able to mix and match those guys,” King said. “Cole can do a lot of different things as well. So having two guys with size that can separate (and) that can run with the ball in their hands, it creates mismatches. It creates creativity for an offense in Ben’s eyes.”
Loveland suffered a shoulder injury during his final season at Michigan that required surgery in January. King said the Bears expect him to be ready to go once training camp begins in July.
Running back Ashton Jeanty, one of the top playmakers in the draft, wound up going No. 6 to the Las Vegas Raiders. The Bears also missed out on the top offensive tackles. Three tackles went before they picked: LSU’s Will Campbell fourth to the New England Patriots, Missouri’s Armand Membou seventh to the New York Jets and Texas’ Kelvin Banks Jr. ninth to the New Orleans Saints.
Poles confirmed late Thursday that the Bears had preliminary discussions with other teams about potentially trading up. He indicated that he felt it would’ve been too costly.
“There’s a run coming up here (on Day 2) that I think you can make a pretty big impact on your football team,” Poles said. “To give up that for one person, so giving up two (picks) for one — and it probably would’ve been even more than that — it just didn’t make sense.”
The Bears have three picks on Day 2 on Friday, including two in the second round.
