Colston Loveland Camp Update — August 16: The Leap We Doubted Keeps Showing Up in Practice

Colston Loveland has spent training camp doing exactly the thing the June episode doubted he would do this soon. In the first three days of camp he dominated Chicago's own defense — a contested catch over starting linebacker Devin Bush, and four receptions including a touchdown in a two-minute drill with the first team — per Kole Noble at A to Z Sports, whose headline called him "more unguardable everyday." Caleb Williams went further in the same piece: "He can become the best tight end in the league. He's an all-encompassing tight end."

The June read, for context, was skepticism about timing. Loveland's rookie year was real — 58 catches, 713 yards, six touchdowns, the team lead in receiving on 82 targets — but streaky, with more silent weeks than signature ones and a target diet of about five a game. We said the bet on him was a full year-two breakout at the position where breakouts arrive slowest, that his rookie volume did not yet support elite status, and that the tailwinds — first fully healthy offseason of his pro career, Ben Johnson calling him a centerpiece, targets vacated by the DJ Moore trade — were the reason to stay interested rather than walk away.

The tailwinds are now producing visible weather. This was not one outlet's enthusiasm: Athlon and the Northwest Indiana Times ran similar camp-standout items this month. The caution is what August praise always carries: it is practice evidence, against his own defense, and tight-end camp hype is among the least reliable currencies in football. He did not play in Saturday's opener, when the Bears sat most starters, so there is still no live target count to hold against the doubt.

Does the June read hold? COMPLICATED — the base-rate skepticism about a year-two tight-end leap hasn't been disproven, but every scrap of evidence since June has landed on the other side of the scale, and the first-team two-minute usage is the kind of detail that precedes a real role change.

Two things for next week: how the Bengals joint practice on Thursday treats him against a defense that isn't his roommate, and his targets in the August 20-second game if he plays. We'll check next Sunday.

_Data via nflverse._