Chicago Bears’ Tight Ends Put Under the Microscope By NFL Expert Andy Behrens
Will highly-touted rookie Colston Loveland and semi-disappointing veteran Cole Kmet turbo-charge Ben Johnson's offense?
REMEMBER WHEN Walter Payton, Artis Gilmore, and Dave Kingman dominated the Chicago sports landscape?
I sure do. And so does my neighbor, Andy Behrens.
For over 30 years—the last 20 of which have been spent writing and analyzing fantasy sports for such outlets as ESPN and Yahoo Sports—Behrens has lived and died (mostly died) with our fair city’s franchises. Which is why we wanted his take on the Chicago Bears’ reality and fantasy outlook for the 2025 season.
In the third installment of our four-part chat, Andy discussed if or how rookie tight end Colston Loveland and veteran TE Cole Kmet can successfully coexist in a Ben Johnson offense.
ALAN GOLDSHER: Like you, I wrote about three-million mock drafts this spring, and in the latter half of them, I had the Bears selecting tight end Tyler Warren. They fooled me—and a goodly number of our fellow mock drafters—grabbing Michigan TE Colston Loveland. After they made the pick, I did a deep dive into Loveland’s tape and felt like they made the correct decision. Agree?
ANDY BEHRENS: Before I answer that, let me take brief tangent: What a disastrous landing spot for Tyler Warren [in Indianapolis]. He's a really good player. Nobody's more versatile than him, but he’s in a quarterback wasteland; it’s either going to be Anthony Richardson or Daniel Jones, so there's no chance for that team to produce two or three viable pass catchers. It's brutal.
As for Loveland, for me, he’s one of those guys like Jordan Addison. When you have NFL draft columns to write, and mock drafts to produce, you have to do your scouting. I still remember scouting Kenny Pickett and Addison [in 2023], and Addison made everything happen for Pickett. I was like, Forget the quarterback, I want this guy.
It wasn't quite like that with J.J. McCarthy and Loveland in Michigan [in 2024], because I think McCarthy is really good. But Loveland jumped off the screen.
During the national title year at Michigan, Loveland got himself deep downfield really well He's the kind of tight end a quarterback can hit with those deep middle-of-the-field throws. He's got great hands. He's got great ball adjustment ability and he can play on the line, too.
He's just a very gifted receiver, and if Ben Johnson's offense is what we think it can be—and if Caleb Williams becomes what we think he can be—Loveland can be a star, the kind of guy who settles in as an 1,100 yard receiver and gives you eight touchdowns, ten touchdowns, 12 touchdowns—numbers that allow a player to finish in fantasy as the TE1. He has a chance to be really special, and I think it was a great pick.
That said, saying that a tight end has top-ten potential in fantasy isn't really that big of a deal—and this point, they’d just need to catch six touchdown passes. But Loveland will be in the top-five conversation down the road. He’s just that physically gifte.
A.G.: Does he have enough talent to produce in a garbage offense the way Brock Bowers thrived in Las Vegas last year? Like, let's pretend that the Bears only had one quality receiver and Loveland was their second pass catcher. Does he have a Bowers ceiling, or his he more along the lines of his consistent comp, Sam LaPorta?
A.B.: First of all, I'm an Iowa guy, so to me, a LaPorta ceiling is just fine.
Right now, I'm not going to put Loveland at Bowers’ level…but I wouldn't put Trey McBride at Bowers’ level either, and [in 2024] McBride had the damn near the same year as Bowers—he just didn't catch any touchdown passes until the very end of the season.
But in a really weird offense that had no talent at receiver, sure, Loveland could certainly earn 130 targets, and that's what it takes to have a huge PPR year.
I'm not gonna give Loveland the Bowers status right away, but it’s in the range of outcomes.
A.G.: I’ve been of the opinion that Loveland’s ostensible backup, Cole Kmet, should have been a salary cap casualty. He's a perfectly okay player, and a great podcaster, and he seems like a fine gentleman, but he's just not worth the money. What's your stance on Kmet?
A.B.: Loveland is a fundamentally different receiver [than Kmet] and a much more dangerous receiver, but I think Johnson will have two tight ends on the field a lot. Caleb has at least some familiarity with Kmet, which is probably gonna lead to about 60 targets. That doesn't sound like a lot, but it makes Kmet a fantasy nuisance if you're hoping for Loveland to see 100 targets.
A.G.: Last season, there were games in which I looked at the stat sheet and, surprise, surprise, Kmet had three, or two, or one, or even zero targets. Some of that falls on the scheme, but Kmet seems like he's not the kind of guy who’s going to demand the ball.
A.B.: Yeah, I mean targets are earned, right? So when a [pass catcher] goes multiple games with three or fewer targets, that’s generally a sign they're not getting open.
Kmet is not a perfect tight end, by any means. He's the sort of guy who, if he were attached to an offense that put up 5,000 passing yards, could back into some TE6-ish numbers, [but] I don't think he's a guy who can get it on his own. If Cole Kmet is going to be fantasy relevant, this offense will need to be spectacular, and I just don’t see it.
A.G.: Grades on both tight ends?
A.B.: Best case scenario for Loveland will be an A. Kmet is more like a C-minus.
Visit Andy on Twitter (we’ll never call it X) at https://x.com/andybehrens.