LAKE FOREST, Ill. – Colston Loveland was sort of open down the seam, but also kind of not. Safety Jaquan Brisker covered the Bears rookie tight end well, but Caleb Williams targeted him anyway.

Loveland elevated as the ball encroached, and Brisker put a hand up to defend. The No. 10 overall NFL draft pick high-pointed the ball, snatched it from the air and came down to secure the catch.

Plays like that dare the Bears and their fans to dream about just how good this guy can be. We’re a million miles from realizing potential, but Loveland has shown real quality at times since completing his ramp-up period and becoming a full practice participant.

He has also tested the surgically repaired shoulder that kept him out of OTAs and minicamp, with some aggressive run blocking on Monday and Tuesday, when the pads came on.

“It’s just getting used to falling on it again,” Loveland said in a Tuesday press conference. “It feels good. I feel like it kind of helps in just getting acclimated to football, and it feels great.”

Loveland’s offseason program studies seemed to help him hit the ground running from a mental perspective.

“I’ve been physically (unable) to be out there in the spring, just been dialing in the playbook, taking the mental reps like I’ve said,” Loveland said. “It’s one thing to go out there and run them, to do it. I’m working every day to be better, be perfect. Obviously, perfection’s tough. But working every day to do that, things are gonna come up along the way. But learning from those things is not letting it happen again.”

There were certainly expectations for how Loveland would practice once he was fully cleared, but head coach Ben Johnson wanted to reserve judgement until he saw him live.

“You can’t gauge until you get him on the field,” Johnson said early Tuesday morning. “The football instincts — they’ve showed up from the get-go. He had a particular block the other day where the defensive end looked to spin out of it, and he was able to anticipate that and stay on top of it. Those are things that really stand out to a coaching staff that maybe if you’re just a regular bystander, you might not see. It’s really encouraging when you look at a young player like that and the growth that he’s going to be able to have the more reps that he gets.”

Loveland’s known best for receiving, but he’ll have to fulfill all tight end responsibilities, including run blocking and occasionally protecting the quarterback with a pass set or by chipping the edge rusher.

He has also lined up in-line, in the slot and out wide. That’s a lot of positions for a rookie still finding his way, but Loveland believes the Bears coaching style helps him absorb all that information well.

“They teach us to learn conceptually because there’s formations where we’ll be out wide, receivers will be in tight, doing tight-end things,” Loveland said. “The easiest way to do it is just learn conceptually, learn the formations as a whole, learn the plays as a whole.

“In the call-it period, he calls something maybe we’ve never ran before, you already know what’s going on. So yeah, that’s a big thing, and that’s a great thing about this offense. You can be anywhere — receiver, tight end, running back. Being able to learn the whole offense and be put in positions maybe you weren’t put in, that’s a blessing for sure.”