Bears pull stunner at No. 10, drafting Michigan TE Colston Loveland

GREEN BAY, Wis. — When Bears general manager Ryan Poles volunteered his prediction earlier this week that the first round of the NFL Draft could “be a little wild,” he might have been thinking about his own plans.

Although they didn’t shake up the top 10 quite as much as the Jaguars did Thursday night, the Bears nonetheless pulled a stunner at No. 10 by picking Michigan tight end Colston Loveland.

Not only was tight end far from the Bears’ most pressing need, but every major mock draft had Penn State’s Tyler Warren ahead of Loveland at the position.

Perhaps the real wild card was new Bears coach Ben Johnson. Loveland seems much more like a Johnson pick than someone Poles would have sought alone. Loveland said he “loved” Johnson before he even met him, just from watching what Johnson did as the Lions’ offensive coordinator the last three seasons. He came away from their meeting at Michigan’s pro day last month even more enamored of him.

“The things they were doing — man, really smart,” Loveland said. “[Johnson] knows what he’s doing. Knows football. . . . I’m the No. 1 fan of that guy for sure.”

Johnson schemed the NFL’s most powerful offense in Detroit and leaned heavily on formations with two tight ends, a possible indicator of how he might use Loveland and veteran Cole Kmet together.

Johnson told Loveland in their meeting in March that he reminded him of Lions tight end Sam LaPorta, who made the Pro Bowl as a rookie under Johnson. The Lions traded two-time Pro Bowl tight end T.J. Hockenson in 2022, then drafted LaPorta in the second round the next year.

Based on his talks with Johnson, Loveland expect dynamic formations when he and Kmet are playing together.

“You see teams trying to get two well-rounded tight ends that can do a lot and put defenses in a bind, so I’m super stoked to get in there and learn from [Kmet],” Loveland said. “He’s been doing it for a while, really good at it, so I’m excited. He can be a mentor for me.”

Loveland, 21, is 6-6, 248 pounds and played three seasons for the Wolverines. Over the last two, he had 101 catches for 1,231 yards and nine touchdowns.

He was born in rural Washington and grew up in Gooding, Idaho, where he watched the draft with family and friends Thursday. The Bears plan to fly him in Friday and hold his introductory news conference at Halas Hall before the start of the second round, in which they hold the Nos. 39 and 41 picks.

Kmet is coming off his least productive season since his rookie year — 47 catches, 474 yards and four touchdowns — but was on a promising trajectory before that. He has three years and $34.8 million left on his contract.

After the Titans opened the draft by taking Miami quarterback Cam Ward, the draft did indeed turn dramatic. Once that pick was official, the Jaguars pounced and shook things up by trading with the Browns, giving up a second-round pick to move up from No. 5 to No. 2 and take Colorado two-way star Travis Hunter.

Hunter won the Heisman Trophy last season playing full-time at wide receiver and cornerback and plans to do both in the NFL. The Browns raved about him leading up to the draft, but that now appears to have been a diversion.

Top pass rusher Abdul Carter of Penn State was available for the Giants at No. 3, followed by a string of obvious Bears targets getting picked: LSU offensive tackle Will Campbell fourth to the Patriots, Michigan defensive tackle Mason Graham fifth to the Browns and Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty sixth to the Raiders.

By the time the Bears were on the clock, the top three offensive tackles were gone: Campbell, Missouri’s Armand Membou (seventh to the Jets) and Texas’ Kelvin Banks (ninth to the Saints).

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