Newly minted Head Coach of the famed Chicago Bears, Ben Johnson, has a bit of a type, doesn’t he? Johnson comes from the Detroit Lions’ most recent coaching room with a TE group that includes rookie sensation, now turned fantasy darling in Sam Laporta, and lesser-known TE Brock Wright. Loveland was the consensus number two pick for the majority of the season, with only the last 60 days seeing him rise towards a place where not only did he threaten TE Tyler Warren’s TE1 status, but would eventually pass him by going before him in this year’s NFL Draft.
In a season challenged by injuries, Loveland played in just 10 games for Michigan but still managed to record 56 receptions for 582 yards and five touchdowns. He earned second-team All-America recognition from the FWAA, was a finalist for the John Mackey Award (which honors the top tight end in college football), and was named second-team All-Big Ten—finishing these honors behind Penn State’s Tyler Warren. Notably, during a November game against then-No. 1 Oregon, he achieved a season-high 112 yards on seven receptions.
Loveland was a vital target for the Wolverines during their 2023 national championship campaign, earning All-Big Ten honors, first team from the coaches, and second team from the media. Over three seasons, he compiled 117 receptions for 1,466 yards and 11 touchdowns. His mix of size and speed, underscored by an average of 14.5 yards per catch in his first two seasons, placed him as the second-ranked tight end on The Athletics’ draft board by expert Dane Brugler, trailing just behind Tyler Warren.
Even NFL coaches are remaining anonymous ahead of the NFL Draft when discussing Loveland saying, “He is in that Evan Engram mold. He probably doesn’t have that kind of top-end speed and is more of a 4.65 40 guy, but he can stretch the field, and he’s probably a little more physical. He’s a smooth route runner, smoother than (Tyler) Warren, and tough enough.”
Loveland will be moving to a team that was working on developing TE Cole Kmet, a player who was struggling with drops across his career, going from 63.6% in 2020 to 64.5% in 2021 to 72.5% in 2022 to 81.1% in 2023. If you want to compare Loveland to his TE counterpart in this draft, he’s better than both Kmet and Warren, with a 3.4% drop rate at Michigan, ahead of Warren’s 5.2%. Younger QBs are often paired with stable tight ends at the next level, and while the introduction of Loveland may seem a bit off, the kid just turned 21 on April 9th. Warren, however, is 22, turning 23 on May 24th, giving the runway to Bears to keep this TE in house, and hopefully turn him into a Greg Olsen clone!
Fantasy implications are high for Loveland, from redraft to dynasty, he’s going to be a must-cuff with Caleb Williams, as the constant safety blanket will improve Loveland very quickly at the next level. The speed may be a step behind a Sam Laporta, but the impact Sam had on that Lions team is what Loveland can do to the Bears, while also assisting in the run game to help Caleb improve on his sophomore season. If you’re taking him in fantasy in the top 10, you’re expecting him to receive a ton of targets as a rookie, but this might be the guy you take and prepare to roll with as TE1 in 2026, but I cannot deny the overall chance that Loveland can make an immediate impact. While it’s a gamble, he’s my TE1 in this years NFL Draft, and will be ranked in the mid-first as a dynasty target. Redraft is where he will be flourish, being able to take a potential top 10 TE in the 5th or later rounds due to the speculation of workload vs Kmet.
Loveland is going to be a staple in this league for a long-time, and Tyler Warren was getting Sam Laporta comparisons, then I think we might need to talk about a TE named George Kittle for the Loveland comparison. I hope you’re going to see the vision in the offensive system that Ben is bringing to Chicago, the dynamic TE group, the RB room, offensive line improvements, and more. I believe in Colston Loveland. Ben Johnson got himself a gamer, a TE1, a FB1, Calebs’ safety blanket, and more – couldn’t have had a better pick for the Bears on Day 1 of the 2025 NFL Draft.