It only took three practices of Chicago Bears rookie minicamp for tight end Colston Loveland to feel at home.
After thriving at the University of Michigan, and surging up the Bears’ draft board before ultimately being chosen by Chicago with the No. 10 overall pick of April’s 2025 NFL Draft , Loveland says that he’s already noticing plenty of similarities between head coach Ben Johnson’s scheme and what he ran in college.
“Playing there helped a ton,” Loveland told reporters during the Bears’ rookie minicamp. “It’s a pro-style offense. Always two tight ends on the field. A lot of the terminology and everything kind of flows right into it. We use the same stuff. It has helped me, for sure. We’ve got a long way to go though. It’s a new offense and I’m just excited to get in it and get right.”
In Ann Arbor, Loveland thrived in an offense that was built around a power-running scheme and many pro-style traits, which could mirror what he’s walking into in the NFL given Johnson’s track record for funneling the passing game through the tight end position and leaning heavily on the ground attack.
If the Loveland is going to make the kind of instant impact on the offense, and quarterback Caleb Williams making major strides off his rookie season, Johnson believes that the foundation is going to be set in mental reps and the meeting room this spring just as much as any practice snap the rookie tight end plays in practice.
“It’s more mental,” Johnson told reporters. “And we’re going to take full opportunity with the time we have with him, call it six weeks in terms of getting him up to speed with not only what the veterans know mentally but, how much can we walk through with him on the side to speed up the learning process.”
Chicago Bears’ Dennis Allen already impressed by rookie Shemar Turner
While there is much optimism about Loveland’s potential role in Johnson’s offense, defensive coordinator Dennis Allen is already fired up by what he’s seeing from rookie defensive lineman Shemar Turner.
“I think we’ll have to put the saddle on him and break him a little bit but we’d rather have to pull the reins back rather than have to whip him to get him to go,” Allen told reporters during rookie minicamp. “We’re excited about working with him.”
“The first thing we got to do is we got to play him in at defensive tackle and let him learn there, let him develop there, both as a three-technique and a nose, and then we’ll worry about trying to see that flexibility,” Allen said. “From a skill set standpoint, yeah, he’s got some flexibility. We’ll just have to see what he can learn, how quickly he can learn and adapt to what we’re doing.”
Turner, 6-foot-4 and 300 pounds, was chosen by the Bears with the No. 62 overall pick in the second round has the potential to be a major upgrade alongside edge rushers Montez Sweat and newcomer Dayo Odeyingbo.
According to Pro Football Focus, Turner posted an elite 7.9 run-stop win rate and adds the potential as the kind of player who can collapse the pocket as an interior pass-rush presence after posting 10 sacks across three seasons in College Station.
Turner’s disruptiveness against the run as well as the pass will likely get him on the field, but his flexibility that Allen mentioned could carve out a major role in Chicago’s defensive line rotation.
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