New Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson got his guy in tight end Colston Loveland, the No. 10 overall pick of the 2025 NFL Draft.
The decision had a significant ripple effect on the rest of the event.
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“Chicago quieted trade calls with the Colston Loveland pick at No. 10. I’ve heard from multiple teams who said the lack of a trade from Nos. 3 to 25 was due in part to Loveland going off the board,” ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler wrote on May 7. “Had he made it into the teens, someone would have made a move. While Penn State’s Tyler Warren was the bigger name, Loveland’s traits and upside drove week-of-draft buzz that he was the top tight end in this class.”
Loveland followed up a 649-yard, championship-winning season in 2023 with a 56-catch (a Wolverines tight end record), 582-yard campaign, tacking on a career-best 5 TDs.
ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg also noted the expectation that Warren would have been TE1. He also offered an account from an anonymous Big Ten defensive coordinator, who pointed to mitigating circumstances.
Among them, the Wolverines’ No. 130 overall-ranked offense. Specifically, the second coach pointed
“The quarterback play [in 2024] kind of killed him, he didn’t have anybody to throw him the ball,” the coordinator said, per Rittenberg on May 6. “But I think he’s pretty special. He’s more of a receiving tight end, where Tyler can kind of do it all. Two good ones, though. No doubt about it.”
Another coordinator told Rittenberg it was a matter of “personal preference” between the Bears’ choice of Loveland or Warren.
“Warren’s more of hard-nosed, tough, physical, along with being a good receiving threat,” the coach said. “Loveland’s a little bit more of a better receiver, a little less blocking. I don’t know if it was the injury or what this year, but they didn’t really use him a ton to block. So is it he can’t do it, or he was banged up? Penn State’s guy is a little bit more of a complete player.”
Colston Loveland’s Former Coach Sets Record Straight
Loveland’s former head coach, Michigan’s Sherrone Moore, cleared the air a bit about the Bears tight end’s perceived lack of blocking prowess while making no bones about where the rookie will earn his keep.
“You look at what we did in ‘23, we’re in 13 personnel a lot of games, and he’s playing in the backfield, he’s playing at the point of attack. I think he’s an extremely willing blocker. He’s not the 270-pound, big, “Ys” [tight ends] that are in the NFL, or offensive alignment. But he’s going to put his face in there, he’s going to do the dirty work, he’s going to be as physical as he can,” Moore told Clocker Sports in April.
“Where he excels is in the pass game. And he has the ability to block, and he’ll be able to do that in the NFL and challenge people that way. But then, he’ll excel in the passing game.”
An anonymous executive said that a team’s first-round pick is a “statement.
“Your first pick is in some way a statement about what this team needs and how they are going to play and how they are going to win,” the executive said, per The Athletic’s Mike Sando in comments published on May 2. “(Loveland) is an interesting choice, and I think you can tell it was coach-driven.”
Johnson expects Loveland to deliver on the grandest stages, which says a lot about his plans for the Bears.
“He doesn’t bat an eye. He performs at a high level,” Johnson told reporters in April.
“As we talk about where we’re going as an organization, and we’re going to be playing in these big games with the bright lights, we need guys that are going to rise up to the occasion, and he’s going to do that for us.”