When Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams threw a pass over the middle during a team drill in a training camp practice last month, the ball slipped out of his grasp. The scorching summer heat and Chicago humidity caused sweat to drip down and make the ball slick.
Williams raised his arm up and tried to compensate for the awkward angle the ball left his hand. His pass to his intended target, Colston Loveland, went high as a result.
Still, the rookie tight end was able to come down with the ball, helping to further develop his connection with Williams.
“Things like that provide trust, faith and belief that whenever that ball goes up in the air, you know it’s his,” Williams said later. “When the ball goes up, I got all the faith in him.”
That’s striking for a number of reasons. The first has to be that Loveland is a rookie who has, obviously, yet to take an NFL snap. The only exposure Williams has had to him has been in the offseason.
Second, Loveland is coming off a shoulder injury that kept him sidelined until training camp opened. Before that catch, it had only been eight days since Loveland and Williams first stepped on the Bears’ practice fields together. They’re also learning a brand new offense together under new head coach Ben Johnson.
For as inconsistent as the offense looked in the early days of camp, Loveland has been consistent — and that’s exactly what he’s aiming for.
“Being a tight end, you want to be that security blanket,” Loveland said last week. “The old saying is, ‘if you can touch it, you can catch it.’ That most of the time stands true and that’s how you want it to be.”
A security blanket is especially important for a young quarterback coming off a rocky first year and is learning to operate a system he’s never operated before, using a skillset he hasn’t historically showcased.
Caleb Williams struggled as a rookie, leading the Bears to bring in Ben Johnson as head coach and use a top-10 pick on Colston Loveland. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images)
Williams is effectively starting over after a year in which he took 68 sacks, but still managed the fifth-best season by a quarterback in Bears history by basic passing statistics. Going deeper, though, you’ll find wild inconsistencies within some of the more advanced metrics, like completion rate over expectation, where Williams ranked 24th, or total EPA where he ranked second to last among quarterbacks with at least 300 dropbacks last season. The only player who fared worse was Tennessee Titans quarterback Will Levis.
Williams’ new coach isn’t one to shy away from the analytics, either. Johnson will be tracking Williams’ EPA, which can help quantify just how much Williams’ floor raises under Johnson.
Raising that floor can be aided tremendously by a big receiver with a large catch radius. That’s why Loveland could not only see the field in his first year as a pro, but also become a focal point of Ben Johnson’s offense.
Looking at Loveland, he’s built like a stereotypical tight end, which comes in handy with blocking duties, but he also has the ability to run routes fluidly, high point and track the ball in the air and line up out wide. In training camp, he’s done it already, presenting a matchup nightmare for his defensive teammates.
“I grew up playing receiver throughout my life,” Loveland said. “Shout out to my older brother, he’s a receiver, he helped me a lot with that. Then my coaches throughout the years high school coaches, college coaches, now NFL coaches. They’ve all had a big part of it. It’s helped for sure.”
As if that isn’t enough to earn Loveland a spot among the starters immediately, it’s not even what has caught Johnson’s eye so far in training camp.
“He had a particular block the other day where the defensive end looked to spin out of it, and he was able to anticipate that and stay on top of it,” Johnson said. “Those are things that really stand out to a coaching staff that maybe if you’re just a regular bystander, you might not see. It’s really encouraging when you look at a young player like that and the growth that he’s going to be able to have the more reps that he gets.”
At Michigan, where Loveland was part of the 2023 team that won a national title, he was asked to block for a very robust run game. His frame makes him a natural blocker. His experience makes him a willing one.
“That’s what we’re asked to do as tight ends, especially in this offense,” Loveland said. “You’re not just going to be a pass-catching tight end or a run-blocking tight end. You’re going to be asked to do it all, and you wouldn’t want it any other way.”
Colston Loveland emerged as one of the top all-around tight ends in college football during his time at Michigan. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
Couple all of these traits with a head coach who served as tight ends coach in his first year under Dan Campbell in Detroit and perhaps understands the position better than most as a result. Johnson was elevated from that to offensive coordinator in 2022, the last time he installed a brand new offense. He’s learned a lot from that and the evolution into one of the league’s most potent schemes, leading the NFL last year in points scored per game.
Having a weapon like Loveland with a guy that knows what to do with him is why the Bears spent a top-10 pick on a tight end. The mismatches tight ends create because of their varied skillset is a force multiplier, especially one that understands football the way Loveland does.
“He’s thinking more like a quarterback, which is really what you want of all the skilled players to think like,” Johnson told FOX 32 Chicago. “And so it’s impressive for a young man, rookie season, to already be at that level.”
Ben Johnson’s experience as a tight ends coach could help Colston Loveland. (Photo by Ben Hsu/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Loveland will need it for what Johnson asks him, and all of Chicago’s skill players, to do.
“As an offense, they teach us to learn conceptually because formations will be out wide, receivers will be in tight doing tight end things,” Loveland said. “The easiest way to do it is just learn conceptually, learn the formations as a whole, learn the plays as a whole. We’re in a call-up period, he calls something maybe we’ve never ran before. You already know what’s going on. I think that’s a big thing and that’s a great thing about this offense is you can be anywhere; receiver, tight end, running back. Being able to just learn the whole offense and put in positions maybe you weren’t put in. That’s a blessing for sure.”
All the more ways that Johnson can get the ball into Loveland’s hands. And all the more ways that Loveland can be that safety blanket — and focal point — for Williams and this Chicago offense.
“It’s just building a connection, routes, figuring out how he moves and other things,” said Williams. “So, when we get out there on the field on Sundays, Thursdays, and Mondays, we’re out there rolling.”
Carmen Vitali is an NFL Reporter for FOX Sports. Carmen had previous stops with The Draft Network and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. She spent six seasons with the Bucs, including 2020, which added the title of Super Bowl Champion (and boat-parade participant) to her résumé. You can follow Carmen on Twitter at @CarmieV.
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