Chicago Bears fans are eager to see their now second-year tight end Colston Loveland follow up on his stellar rookie season.
The 10th overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft struggled through the first six games of his career, but turned on the jets late in the season. Loveland ended up leading the team in receiving yards with 713 and tied for the lead in receiving touchdowns with six.
Out of his 58 receptions on the season, 36 of them went for first downs. Even deeper than that, UF Sports Analytics Lab's Josh shared on X the stats on third-down success rates for receivers, with Loveland at number one at 65% on 20 targets.
Colston Loveland proved he's clutch on third down in 2025
The Bears are going to need more from Loveland on third down, as the team actually lost a receiver from last year's team that was also ranked high on third down. Olamide Zaccheaus was 11th on the list, having been targeted 21 times and achieving a 57.1% success rate on third down.
Chicago also lost DJ Moore, along with Zaccheaus, which is going to put more pressure on the young players on the roster to step up with the veterans out of the door. Young guns like Loveland, Rome Odunze, Luther Burden, and Jahdae Walker now have elevated roles, even if none have been in the league for more than two years before the start of the 2026 campaign.
One thing about the Bears, though, is that Loveland continues to show them that they were right to take a chance on him. There was a lot of pressure on him to succeed, as it was a big risk for Chicago to pick him, but he has turned his rookie season into a success story.
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While the expectations might be different, Loveland should pick up from where he left off in 2025 as the number one target in this offense.