Loveland, meanwhile, became only the third tight end selected by the Bears in the first round of the draft, joining Hall of Famer Mike Ditka (1961) and Greg Olsen (2006).<\/p>\n
Loveland appeared in 39 games the past three seasons at Michigan, catching 117 passes for 1,466 yards and 11 touchdowns. He was named first-team All-Big Ten in 2023 when he helped the Wolverines win the national championship, recording 45 receptions for a career-high 649 yards and four TDs. Last year he established career highs with 56 catches and five touchdowns while compiling 582 yards.<\/p>\n
Loveland was targeted by the Bears in part because of his versatility and intangibles.<\/p>\n
“It’s not just one part of his game,” said general manager Ryan Poles. “It’s the totality of what he can do for us. When you turn on the tape, there’s plays being made constantly. It’s a guy that you could feel confident going to in critical situations.<\/p>\n
“What stands out? Obviously, the dynamic skillset to separate but also when you really study him in the run game, the blocking is way better than I think people realize.”<\/p>\n
Loveland also appealed to the Bears because he excels at creating mismatches and plays with a nonstop motor that rubs off on teammates.<\/p>\n
“Love his compete, his fire,” Poles said. “This kid is physical, he’s tough, he plays the game the right way. When you watch the tape, there’s an energy level that comes with him. You can see it throughout the game and it’s infectious to other guys.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Loveland, meanwhile, became only the third tight end selected by the Bears in the first round of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":198144,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2070],"tags":[374,443,692,391,2493,3744,590,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-198143","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-bears","8":"tag-bears","9":"tag-centerpiece","10":"tag-chicago","11":"tag-chicago-bears","12":"tag-chicagobears","13":"tag-cole-kmet","14":"tag-colston-loveland","15":"tag-football","16":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114833287238112108","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198143\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}