Bears News: Ryan Poles on drafting TE Loveland: "He’s physical, he’s tough"

Ariana Pensy - Correspondent - 4 hours ago

CHICAGO - When looking at the various mock drafts, I cannot recall many that had the Chicago Bears drafting tight end Colston Loveland out of Michigan with the No. 10 overall pick especially when tight end Tyler Warren was still available.

Nonetheless, that is precisely what general manager Ryan Poles and the Bears decided to do.

“(Identified) a guy that we really liked, that we thought had a dynamic skill set, create mismatches. I think more importantly too, in terms of our offense, (can) really beef up our 12 personnel. (Loveland is) someone that pairs well with (tight end) Cole (Kmet) along with other playmakers and really creates headaches for a defense to go against. Love (how he) competes, his fire. This kid, he’s physical, he’s tough. He plays the game the right way,” Poles said. “When you watch the tape, there’s an energy level that comes with him and you can see it throughout the game and it’s infectious to other guys. What stands out, obviously, the dynamic skills that separate (him). But also, when you really study him in the run game, the blocking is way better than I think people really realize. Over the last two years, studying, we did our due diligence with the quarterbacks last year. We watched J.J. (McCarthy). This kid stood out as just a different type of player and I know he’s going to add a ton of value to our offense and our entire team.”

Despite all the benefits outlined by Poles, this was still quite the surprising pick. First, Warren was generally considered the best tight end in this draft class. At Penn State, Warren played numerous different positions and showed more versatility than most players. However, Poles chose to prioritize Loveland’s pass catching abilities, which were probably better than Warren’s.

Loveland is also a solid run blocker.

“There’s a lot of conversations there back and forth. Tyler’s going to be a great football player as well. Just, in terms of what fits in what we want to do a little bit better with the personnel group that we have here on our roster, we thought that the combination of what we have was the better fit,” Poles said. “The dynamic skill set that he has as a receiver paired with the run blocking. It’s not just one part of his game. It’s the complete, really, in totality of what he can do for us. But, just when you turn on the tape, there’s just plays being made constantly. It’s a guy that you can feel confident going to in critical situations and now, there’s a lot of them.”

Loveland had a slight decline in his productivity from 2023 when the Wolverines won the National Championship to last season when Michigan struggled.

While this drop in productivity was more a result of the decrease in talent around Loveland and the multiple quarterbacks Michigan played throughout the season, Poles was impressed with the maturity Loveland showed in dealing with these changes.

“We did feel like there was a level of consistency and that was a cool touchpoint for us too and I asked him about how (he handled) that. How’d (he) handle a younger quarterback or somebody that (he) maybe didn’t have the greatest chemistry or the same chemistry (he) had the year before and how he responded to that was just really mature and it showed good awareness,” Poles said. “It showed selflessness. It showed him being a team guy more than just him and his stats because it went down just a little bit. But, you understood why and the way that he just explained that whole thing, I thought, was really cool.”

Selecting Loveland marked the first time since the 2007 NFL Draft when they selected Greg Olsen that Chicago traded a tight end in the first round. This also marked the first time the Bears chose a tight end with a top 10 pick since selecting Mike Ditka No. 5 overall back in 1961.