What the Bears did the last time they visited Lambeau Field led to what happened in the adjacent parking lot Thursday night.
Had the Bears lost to the Packers in the season finale in January, they would’ve drafted seventh. Instead, they picked 10th. While no one inside Halas Hall would trade the outcome of the rivalry win, which ended the team’s losing streak at 10 and gave matriarch Virginia McCaskey one last victory to savor, it might have cost general manager Ryan Poles a starter at the Bears’ biggest position of need.
Poles’ pick of Michigan tight end Colston Loveland might prove prescient. He could become the favorite new toy of coach Ben Johnson. In the meantime, his selection will be remembered as much for whom the Bears didn’t — or couldn’t — take with the 10th pick.
With the seventh pick, the Jets drafted Missouri offensive tackle Armand Membou. With the ninth, the Saints took Texas offensive tackle Kelvin Banks Jr. Add LSU’s Will Campbell going fourth to the Patriots, and exactly one-third of the top nine selections played the position the Bears could most afford to upgrade. Braxton Jones, the team’s starting left tackle, is recovering from ankle surgery and entering the last year of his contract.
What Poles predicted would be a “wild” first round didn’t stun those in the war room.
“The more you got closer to it, I thought the tackles would go,” said Jeff King, the Bears’ senior player personnel director. “I don’t think that was a huge shock to anybody.”
The Bears could have traded up for an offensive tackle — or for running back Ashton Jeanty, who went to the Raiders at No. 6 — but didn’t. They had an opportunity to trade back but couldn’t — the Colts, at No. 14, also were looking for a tight end.
“We made phone calls up and back just to kind of see what the landscape was — Did it make sense for us or not?” Poles said. “The way it fell, we felt really comfortable with how it worked out.”
So the Bears took Loveland, who just turned 21, is recovering from shoulder surgery and was ranked by many analysts behind Penn State tight end Tyler Warren. The move didn’t exactly send a lightning bolt through the fan base. Jeanty, Boise State’s juggernaut, would’ve done just that. An offensive tackle would’ve crossed the biggest need off the list.
Loveland is neither. After months of hype, his selection felt anticlimactic.
Instead, the Bears will continue their yearslong offensive-line search Friday — and perhaps add a running mate for D’Andre Swift — when they pick at Nos. 39, 41 and 72. Five offensive tackles went in Round 1, with Oregon’s Josh Conerly and Ohio State’s Josh Simmons going to the Commanders and Chiefs, respectively. The second tier of running backs will be available: Ohio State’s TreVeyon Henderson and Quinshon Judkins, Iowa’s Kaleb Johnson and Arizona State’s Cam Skattebo.
The Bears framed their pick of Loveland over Warren — who was named first-team All-Big Ten ahead of him in 2024— as a better fit for their offense. Cole Kmet is an in-line tight end as is Warren, whom the Colts drafted. Loveland profiles as a tight end who can play the slot receiver or even be split wide.
“Tyler is going to be a great player,” said King, who played tight end for the Panthers and Cardinals for seven years. “But for us, we just felt that the alignment from coaching, scouting, everybody that touched both players, that he was the best fit for us.”
Loveland called Kmet a stud. It’s Johnson’s job to make sure they coexist.
“We can run the ball and play a physical brand of football,” Poles said. “If you match that with a more physical, bigger personnel group, you have a mismatch on your hands as well. So it’s multiple and it allows Ben to do what he does best which, one, is to have a physical brand of football but also be creative and do some things that are going to put teams in a pickle.”
Only two coordinators used two tight ends more often than Johnson did with the Lions last year.
“Two tight ends that can do everything, can do a lot of things, that messes with the defense,” Loveland said. “‘Nickel, base, what are we going to play?’ ”
Loveland spent three years at Michigan after growing up raising animals, branding cattle and participating in rodeos in tiny Gooding, Idaho. He led the Wolverines in nine of the 10 games he played in last year — and in the national title game a year earlier.
He didn’t work out in advance of the draft after having surgery to fix the AC joint in his right shoulder in January. The Bears think he’ll be fine by training camp. He considered it fate — he didn’t sense the Bears’ interest until he met with their contingent, including Johnson, at Michigan’s pro day last month.
“I felt like they liked me, and I liked them a lot,” Loveland said. “Obviously, you never know on this day. So I didn’t know. I felt like it went well. Now, there’s no place I’d rather be.”