When the Chicago Bears hired Ben Johnson as their head coach, they empowered him to put his stamp on the entire football operation. The offense was clearly going to take on a lot of elements his Detroit Lions' offenses did, with personnel moves to facilitate it.
That message was clearly sent with the first Bears' draft pick of the Johnson era. Many draft pundits did not have Colston Loveland as the No. 1 tight end in the 2025 draft class, but the Bears made him the first one off the board at No. 10 overall.
Over the course of Johnson's three years as offensive coordinator, according to Sumer Sports, the Lions went from 25th to eighth in the league in percentage of plays run out of 12 personnel. So Loveland and incumbent Cole Kmet were sure to be equally core parts of the Chicago offense last season.
That is exactly what happened, as the Bears had the sixth-highest rate of plays in 12 personnel (32.65 percent), and the third-most total plays (360). They were also eighth in EPA per play in that personnel grouping, in a nice marriage of volume and effectiveness that meet the expectations attached to Johnson.
In the third round of April's draft, the Bears added another tight end in Sam Roush. As "13" personnel becomes all the rage in the NFL, Johnson is clearly determined to take a prominent place in that continued evolution by having three highly capable tight ends.
Bears have built a powerhouse TE trio while the rest of the league hardly noticed
Jacob Infante of Pro Football Network has ranked the top-five tight ends rooms in the NFL. The Bears might have had a place on the list with Loveland and Kmet accompanied by just about any warm body as the TE3, but the addition of Roush vaulted them to No. 1.
"Though the Rams have the deeper room in terms of rosterable tight ends, the Chicago Bears have the superior star power at the top. They used a lot more 12 personnel with Ben Johnson becoming their head coach in 2025, jumping from No. 19 in terms of usage rate all the way up to No. 6. It sure helped to have the personnel that they had, as Colston Loveland and Cole Kmet were a formidable duo last season."
"Loveland was incredible as a rookie, finishing sixth in PFN TE Impact Scoring and landing ninth in tight end receiving yards. That’s not even including his playoff run, in which he had 12 catches for 193 yards in the Bears’ two games. Kmet is a reliable blocker and a strong security blanket who’s only dropped 3.9% of his targets since coming to Chicago in 2020."
"Then, the Bears brought in Sam Roush, the rookie tight end from Stanford who had the highest Relative Athletic Score of any tight end in the 2026 NFL Draft class. He was a dominant blocker in college who ranked fifth in the FBS in receptions, receiving yards, and PFN CFB TE Impact Scoring. Bringing him into a Bears offense that already has a top-tier tight end tandem gives Chicago an overpowered group at the position."
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Heading toward Johnson's second season as head coach, the Bears have an enviable trio of tight ends with two young studs surrounding the plenty capable Kmet. That's quite a turnaround from the years before Johnson's arrival, when Kmet led a position group that was otherwise highly unexciting and equally as unproductive outside of him.
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