Colston Loveland Camp Update — August 31: The Red-Zone Pairing Kept Showing Up
2026 NFL Season · Monday, Aug 31
One outlet's post-cuts depth chart lists Loveland as a starter next to Cole Kmet, and the week behind it went well — a red-zone touchdown from Caleb Williams on Wednesday and two highlight catches in Thursday's joint practice with the Titans. The starters sat the finale, so the preseason ends with no real target count. The red-zone question from last week answered yes.
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Cut day settled the tight end room around Colston Loveland without needing to say his name. Chicago kept four tight ends, with undrafted rookie Hayden Large the fourth, per Kole Noble at A to Z Sports, and the post-cuts depth chart at SI's Bear Digest — one outlet's read, not an official team chart — lists Loveland and Cole Kmet as the starters, per Jerry Markarian.
The football week behind that listing gave the listing something to stand on. In Wednesday's practice he caught a red-zone touchdown from Caleb Williams, per Larry Mayer at the team's website, where Ben Johnson praised Williams's red-zone anticipation, timing and trust in his receivers. In Thursday's joint practice with the Titans, Loveland made two highlight plays — he hauled in a lateral from D'Andre Swift and ran it for a long gain, and he turned a crosser into a big play after the catch, spinning off the defender — per Noble. He was also, for the second straight joint practice, the intended man on the closing two-minute interception, this one to Tony Adams, per Noble. That reads as target volume at the moment of highest leverage, not a mark against him; no reporting assigns him fault, and Williams put the Cincinnati one on himself. There was no game usage to add: Williams and most starters sat Saturday's finale in Nashville, Johnson's call after the joint practice, per Patrick Finley at the Chicago Sun-Times. Behind the starters, rookie Sam Roush made the 53 and drew praise from the coach this week, per Patrick K. Flowers at Bleacher Nation — depth for the room, and not the man Loveland shares a snap count with. That is Kmet.
Last week we watched for two things: Loveland's usage in the starters' remaining preseason snaps, and whether the red-zone pairing with Williams kept showing up. The first question closed without an answer — there were no starter snaps, by the coach's decision. The second answered yes, more than once. Back in June we doubted the timing of a year-two leap more than the talent, and August ended the way it ran all month: the connection keeps completing, and a target count over a real game's worth of snaps still doesn't exist. Week One is the first sample, and we'll check back as it comes into focus.
_Data via nflverse._
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