The Chicago Bears produced above expectations in 2025 with a playoff win over the Packers and are far from satisfied with a young nucleus that has their eyes set on building something special. Colston Loveland proved himself to be a fantasy football star as a rookie and in this Ben Johnson system, his arrow is pointing straight up.
Should You Draft Colston Loveland in Fantasy Football?
Loveland was the 10th overall pick after spending three seasons at Michigan. His physical tools were no secret, but his role was a work in progress coming out of camp.
How was Cole Kmet going to be used? How many targets were realistically available for this position group given the number of viable receivers? Is Caleb Williams a franchise QB?
Most of those questions sound ridiculous now, but they weren’t 12 months ago. Last September, Loveland had three catches. Not per game, for the month. He didn’t score until November and he only had one game with 60+ receiving yards as we approached mid-December.
The wait was worth it.
The volume he saw late in the season (playoffs included) put him in rarefied air and with DJ Moore taking his talents to Buffalo, this coaching staff is pretty clearly comfortable in betting on the young superstar.
Rookies in The 2000’s to Earn 10+ Targets in 4 Straight Games
- Justin Blackmon (2012)
- Odell Beckahm (2014)
- Amon-Ra St. Brown (2021)
- Brian Thomas Jr. (2024)
- Loveland (2025)
Loveland isn’t yet ready to challenge the top tier at the position. The potential is very much there, but there is only so much target share upside in an offense that has earners all over the place and there are still some questions to be asked about the consistency of Caleb Williams under center.
Could that take change in 12 months?
It very much could. Heck, it could change by Halloween given what we saw down the stretch of last season, but there is a touch more risk that comes with him than a Trey McBride or Brock Bowers.
If you wanted to label Loveland as a tier to himself, I’d listen. Tyler Warren and Harold Fannin Jr. are encouraging prospects, though neither has a path to QB stability the way Loveland does. Tucker Kraft appeared destined to call TE Tier 2 home after a hot start to 2025, but a November ACL tear naturally and a 3.5-year age difference has his projection struggling to keep pace, even if the raw tools are in place for big things in an offense that lacks a real target hierarchy.
Loveland’s Dynasty Fantasy Football Value
I don’t think the dynasty outlook is drastically different than the redraft one for Loveland. He’s in that Round 4 conversation in both, though I would give him a slight uptick in long-term leagues because of where he (and the Bears for that matter) sit on the age curve.
Loveland is likely to peak at the same time as Caleb Williams and Luther Burden. This is an offense that put on a show late last season and could be even better sooner than later. That level of optimism has him separating from the Warren’s and Fannin’s of the world as he has answers to the questions we are asking of those two.
Loveland was Flex player #16 over the second half of last season and it wasn’t the result of some unsustainable role bump in scoring situations (five end zone targets across those 10 games). It was simply him getting comfortable with everything (his role, the NFL game, Williams’ cadence, Johnson’s playcalling) and by being isolated by an environment that projects as stable personnel wise, I like the chances of him pushing for Tier 1 inclusion more than I do him falling back to the rest of the pack at the position.
