LAKE FOREST, Ill. (AP) — Colston Loveland saw the creativity new Chicago Bears coach Ben Johnson showed as Detroit’s offensive coordinator. The tight end from Michigan could hardly wait to get to work with him.
Loveland will get his chance after the Bears selected him with the No. 10 overall pick in the NFL draft on Thursday night, giving quarterback Caleb Williams another big target.
“Before I even met him, just watching Detroit last year, the things they were doing — man, really smart,” he said. “Knows what he’s doing. Knows football. Finally being able to talk with him and meet with him and pick his brain, I’m the No. 1 fan of that guy, for sure. He’s legit. He’s a stud. I can’t wait to be on to that. I know he’s gonna put us in a great position, put Chicago in great position to win games.”
The 6-foot-6 Loveland set a school record for a tight end with 56 receptions for 582 yards and five touchdowns as a junior last season. He was second-team All-Big Ten and a finalist for the John Mackey Award given to college football’s top tight end. He was first-team all-conference in the 2023 national championship season, when he caught 45 passes for 649 yards and four TDs.
Chicago chose Loveland over Penn State tight end Tyler Warren, who went to Indianapolis at No. 14. He gives the Bears a potentially potent tandem at the position with Cole Kmet.
“Both really good players,” general manager Ryan Poles said. “There were a lot of conversations there back and forth. Tyler’s gonna be a great football player as well. Just in terms of what fits what we want to do a little bit better with the personnel group that we have here on our roster, we thought that the combination of what we have would be a better fit.”
Johnson liked to use two tight ends when he was Detroit’s offensive coordinator. Sam LaPorta was particularly successful in his system, with 1,615 yards and 17 touchdowns over the past two seasons. He made the Pro Bowl as a rookie out of Iowa in 2023.
“They were asking me what are some of my favorite tight ends to watch,” Loveland said. “I mentioned a couple and I put LaPorta’s name in there — shoutout to him, too; a heck of a player. Coach Johnson was like, ‘Yeah, you remind me a lot of him. We obviously did a lot of things with LaPorta.’ He was like, ‘Yeah, I could see you doing a lot of those things as well.’”
Loveland is one of just five tight ends drafted in the top 10 in the 2000s. The others were Kellen Winslow by Cleveland in 2004, Vernon Davis by San Francisco in 2006, Eric Ebron by Detroit in 2014 and Kyle Pitts by Atlanta in 2021.
Loveland is also just the third tight end drafted in the first round by Chicago. The other two were Hall of Famer Mike Ditka with the No. 5 pick in 1961 and three-time Pro Bowler Greg Olsen at No. 31 in 2007.
Loveland had surgery to reconstruct the AC joint in his right shoulder on Jan. 29 to fix an injury he suffered in September. He is expected to be ready by training camp.
“We’ve obviously been in contact with him throughout this process and feel good with where he’s at,” Bears senior director of player personnel Jeff King said. “Obviously we’re not going to risk anything here early, but we should be good to go by training camp.”
The Bears have been busy since finishing last in the NFC North at 5-12. They landed the most sought-after coaching candidate when they hired Johnson to replace Matt Eberflus, who was fired in the middle of a 10-game losing streak.
Poles overhauled the offensive line in an effort to give last year’s No. 1 overall pick Williams the protection he needs after getting sacked a franchise-record and league-leading 68 times. He acquired two-time All-Pro guard and four-time Super Bowl champion Joe Thuney from Kansas City and former Pro Bowl guard Jonah Jackson from the Los Angeles Rams. He also signed center Drew Dalman.
The Bears addressed their defensive line, adding two-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle Grady Jarrett and edge rusher Dayo Odeyingbo.
Chicago also had two second-round picks (39, 41) and one third-rounder (72) on Friday, plus one pick in the fifth (148) and two in the seventh round (233, 240) on Saturday. ___
AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL
Andrew Seligman, The Associated Press
