You better believe the Chicago Bears have a plan for Colston Loveland.
The roots of it come from the one new coach Ben Johnson highlighted in Detroit in 2023, when the Lions’ Sam LaPorta made a spirited run at breaking the more than 60-year-old record of Mike Ditka for receiving yards by a rookie tight end.
Ultimately, LaPorta came up short and Ditka held onto the mark for one more year before the Las Vegas Raiders’ Brock Bowers surpassed him last season. The point is LaPorta thrived from the jump playing for Johnson, and the Bears are hoping Loveland, whom they selected in the first round at No. 10 Thursday night, has the same kind of instant impact in the passing game.
If Loveland takes off as the Bears are envisioning, it’s easy to count the ways this is going to make the offense and quarterback Caleb Williams better in a crucial season for last year’s No. 1 pick. Loveland will allow the Bears to be a heck of a lot more flexible with their personnel, which should lend to the creativity Johnson craves.
Loveland can be the tight end in 11 personnel (one running back, one tight end, three wide receivers), and he’s versatile enough as a route runner that he can make 12 personnel (one RB, two TEs, two WRs) look like 11 because of his ability to flex out and play in the slot or even as the boundary X receiver. The more the offense leans into 12 personnel, which the Lions featured heavily, in theory the less predictable they are. That makes it a bonus for the run game as well.
“We can really beef up our 12 personnel,” general manager Ryan Poles said late Thursday at Halas Hall. “Some of that pairs well with Cole (Kmet) along with other playmakers and really creates headaches for the defenses we go against. Love his competes, his fire. This kid is physical, he’s tough. He plays the game the right way. You watch the tape and there is an energy level that comes with him and infectious to other players.”
It’s difficult to find a team that made less use of the position throwing the football last season. Forget “Hard Knocks.” HBO needs to send “True Detective” to Halas Hall to figure where it all went wrong. One-year bust Gerald Everett played more than Cole Kmet in the opener. That was easy enough to rectify but then Williams rarely looked Kmet’s way and threw it to him even less. No one really ever had an explanation, at least one that made sense, and too often headaches associated with the offense were self-inflicted.
That’s solved now. Johnson is highly detailed. He has a proven track record. He has been a tight ends coach in Detroit and Miami and at Boston College. So, he knows what he wants and what it looks like. And it was going to require an addition to the position room and a vision, something the coaching staff has in place.
“Let’s not forget, Cole is going to be a big part of our offense as well,” senior director of player personnel Jeff King said. “So having those two guys gives us an element of being in 11, being in 12, and doing a lot of different things. That was intriguing.”
The Bears chose Loveland over Penn State’s Tyler Warren (taken 14th by the Indianapolis Colts) because they hope he’s the more dynamic of the two as a receiver. If so, he’s probably a better pairing with Kmet, whom the Bears plan to feature again after he had 47 receptions for 474 yards and four touchdowns last season.
“Tyler is going to be a great player,” King said. “But for us, we just felt that the alignment from coaching, scouting, everybody that touched both players that he was the best fit for us.”
Chicago Bears in the NFL draft: Tight end Colston Loveland selected at No. 10
Scouts have compared Loveland to LaPorta, and King, a former tight end, made a comp to Todd Heap, a two-time Pro Bowl performer whom he played with in Arizona. Warren has drawn comparisons to former New York Giants standout Jeremy Shockey. All are good players, LaPorta and Heap more skilled as route runners, Shockey more physical and bruising.
But the Loveland-Warren debate will be real for a while. There wasn’t a left tackle available after LSU’s Will Campbell went fourth to the New England Patriots and the New Orleans Saints chose Texas’ Kelvin Banks Jr. at No. 9. It will be fair to wonder if the Bears gave consideration to Georgia defensive end Mykel Williams or even his teammate Jalon Walker, although Walker might be a little small for what the team wants to do under defensive coordinator Dennis Allen.
There were some interesting defensive tackles, including Mississippi’s Walter Nolen, who went 16th to the Arizona Cardinals. There wasn’t a dominant defensive back where the Bears were sitting, and the first didn’t go until No. 20, when the Denver Broncos chose Texas cornerback Jahdae Barron (if you’re considering the Jacksonville Jaguars’ Travis Hunter more of a receiver).
So, the Bears did the best thing they could. They got an offensive weapon for their offensive-minded coach for a season in which the second-year quarterback needs to show true growth. Poles highlighted the idea that Loveland helps the Bears be more creative and more physical, not a lot of players can provide that kind of two-for-one benefit.
“Ben was pushing for a lot of guys,” King said. “Outside of the tight end specific, it didn’t come down to that. We stacked a bunch of players, he had opinions, obviously he had a high opinion of Colston as well. We felt good about a couple of guys because you have to there at 10. Colston ended up being the best pick for us.”
The Bears have been on Loveland for a while. They scouted Michigan quarterback J.J. McCarthy heavily last season when Loveland had 649 yards and four touchdowns on 45 receptions for the Wolverines as a sophomore. With suspect quarterback play and an early-season right shoulder injury, Loveland still had 56 catches for 582 yards last fall.
Poles said they loved the tape but needed to learn more about the player. He highlighted his hand strength that is apparent in how he catches the ball, and Loveland said he helped assemble wire fences in his hometown of Gooding, Idaho, a small community about 100 miles southeast of Boise.
Loveland said he first met Johnson at the Michigan pro day. He felt like they connected, but you never know how things will shake out in the predraft process.
“They were kind of asking me who are some of my favorite tight ends, and I mentioned a couple and I threw LaPorta’s name in there,” Loveland said. “Shout out to him too. Heck of a player.
“Coach Johnson’s like, ‘Yeah, you remind me a lot of him. We can do a lot of things — obviously we did a lot of things with LaPorta.’ And he’s like, ‘Yeah, I can see you doing a lot of those things as well.’”
Linemen and edge rushers dominated Round 1. After the Tennessee Titans chose Miami quarterback Cam Ward No. 1 and the Jaguars traded up for Hunter, the New York Giants scooped up Penn State edge rusher Abdul Carter at No. 3. Offensive linemen/defensive linemen/edge rushers accounted for 12 of the first 18 picks and 18 overall in Round 1.
If the Bears still want competition at left tackle that’s beyond a developmental level, there might be only one option Friday when they hold the 39th and 41st picks (seventh and ninth in Round 2). Minnesota’s Aireontae Ersery remains available after the Washington Commanders chose Oregon Josh Conerly Jr. at No. 29 and the Kansas City Chiefs took Ohio State’s Josh Simmons at No. 32.
But there is a nice group of players available, including Arizona guard Jonah Savaiinaea, Ohio State running backs TreVeyon Henderson and Quinshon Judkins and Iowa running back Kaleb Johnson on the offensive side. On defense, edge rushers Mike Green (Marshall), Nic Scourton (Texas A&M), Donovan Ezeiruaku (Boston College) and Landon Jackson (Arkansas), safeties Nick Emmanwori (South Carolina) and Xavier Watts (Notre Dame) and a host of good cornerbacks remain options.
“I feel really good about where the board is,” Poles said. “I think there’s some players up there that can make a pretty good impact for our team. There’s also a group of guys that we have at the next group that’s really dependable, tough, fits everything we need that we believe can come in and help if that’s starting immediately or eventually being starters. We really like the numbers that are there right now.”
Just because the greatest perceived and real needs could be on the line doesn’t mean the Bears will go that direction. Not if their board says differently and they choose to follow it.
“We’re going to do what we’ve always done and let the board kind of talk to us,” Poles said. “There might be some impact players that aren’t in those positions. When you start leaning on need, you’re going to go down the board (for need) and you’re staring at this guy that’s sitting on the top of the board (at another position). It’s a tough thing to do as far as making an impact on your football team.”
If the vision that led to Loveland’s selection was clear, it’s fun to imagine what Johnson can do with him. Remember, it was LaPorta who hauled in the touchdown on the “Stumble Bum” trick play against the Bears at Soldier Field. He had two other touchdown catches in the Thanksgiving Day meeting at Ford Field.
