Colston Loveland Camp Update — August 23: A Red-Zone Score Against Real Coverage

Colston Loveland's camp highlights finally came against another team this week. In Thursday's joint practice in Cincinnati, he caught one of Caleb Williams's three consecutive red-zone touchdown passes — the sequence that was the offense's best stretch of the day — per Michal Dwojak at Shaw Local. On Saturday he was one of the two players Williams connected with in the starters' only series of the 27 to nine loss, a 10-yard catch alongside Rome Odunze's 18-yarder, per Larry Mayer at the team's website. He was also the intended target on the week's worst play: the two-minute-drill interception that closed Thursday's practice came on a ball thrown high and late in his direction, deflecting to Bengals cornerback Jalen Davis, per Jason Lieser at the Chicago Sun-Times — a miss Williams put on himself, saying "I've got to bring the ball down."

That is a modest pile of live evidence, but it is the first pile that doesn't come with the against-his-own-defense caveat, and it points the same way the camp reporting has all month: Williams keeps looking for him near the goal line, and the connection keeps completing.

Back in June we doubted the timing of a year-two tight-end leap more than the talent, and every week of camp since — this one included — has added evidence on the leap's side, though a target count over a real game's worth of snaps still doesn't exist.

What to watch: Loveland's usage in whatever preseason snaps the starters get before cutdown on Sunday, August thirtieth, and whether the red-zone pairing with Williams keeps showing up once the practices turn to game-planning. We'll check after cut day.

_Data via nflverse._