As the Chicago Bears scored 59 points against the Carolina Panthers in Week 1, and really left some points on the table, not everyone was part of the party. Tight end Colston Loveland went without a catch on just two targets, as the Panthers clearly prioritized keeping him in-check.
With so many capable mouths to feed, and Ben Johnson's adaptability as a play caller, sometimes someone will be left out when the Bears' offense has an explosive day. It happened to Rome Odunze in a game last season, and it happened to Loveland in the season opener. And with six rushing touchdowns in the game, all three of the most prominent Bears' pass catchers had fairly light days.
A closer look shows Loveland led the Bears in routes run in Week 1, with requisite overall route participation, a heavy snap share in all situations, and good diversity of deployment (in the slot, out wide, etc).
Loveland's two targets were close calls. Caleb Williams missed him running wide open on a crossing route, and the other was a fairly tight window incompletion in the end zone where a better throw was necessary.
If one or both of those plays connect, we're having a different conversation. It still wouldn't have been a massive day for Loveland, but he wouldn't have posted a doughnut in the box score.
Colston Loveland lands in expected category of fantasy assets heading into Week 2
Those of us who are Loveland fantasy managers can pretty much expect to get a trade offer for him as Week 2 approaches. Someone will (and should) try to buy at the absolute low point, hoping the current Loveland manager in their league will panic and trade him away without knowing the bigger picture.
There's a strong argument for Loveland as the No. 1 buy-low target in fantasy this week, since it's impossible to try to buy any lower. But Nathan Jahnke of Pro Football Focus has him last among his five buy-low targets for Week 2, while obviously citing the aforementioned bigger picture.
"On third downs (against the Panthers), Loveland played 100% of snaps, which is something he did at the very end of last season. The big difference was normal early-down plays out of 11 personnel, where he played two-thirds of snaps in this game after only seeing 42.2% of those snaps last season."
"Loveland ran a route on 92.1% of the Bears‘ pass plays, which was over 20% more than any other Bears player."
Read more: Colston Loveland took a turn on the back seat with zero-catch outing vs. Panthers
There's also a strong argument for Loveland as the most stable and predictable fantasy asset among the Bears' pass catchers. Beyond the production (or lack thereof), Week 1 otherwise showed that to be true. So his fantasy managers need to stay strong and roundly reject those looming low-ball trade offers this week.
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