LAKE FOREST, Ill. — The Chicago Bears took Michigan tight end Colston Loveland with the No. 10 overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, which surprised many outside Halas Hall.

Penn State’s Tyler Warren was considered the best at his position last season and expected to be the first tight end drafted Thursday night. That was a virtual consensus among draft analysts, and when things go the other way, fans become upset. That was the case this time despite the fact the two were so closely ranked.

The Bears did extensive work on Warren and Loveland. They met with both guys and poured over tape, then made their choice with both of them available.

“Tyler is going to be a great player,” Bears senior director of player personnel Jeff King said. “But for us, we just felt that the alignment from coaching, scouting (and) everybody that touched both players that he was the best fit for us.

“We aren’t comparing players, but both of those guys are going to have really good careers, but Colston was the best fit for us.”

General manager Ryan Poles said there was a lot of debate on how to rank the tight ends, but Loveland was eventually put on top because of the state of their roster and what’s required of that position.

“There’s a lot of conversations there back and forth,” Poles said. “Tyler is going to be a great football player as well. Just in terms of that he fits what we want to do a little bit better with …(what) we have here on our roster, we thought that the combination of him with what we have was the better fit.”

While the Bears chose one available tight end over another accomplished one, general manager Ryan Poles wasn’t focused on one position.

Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty, someone the Bears liked, went No. 6 to the Las Vegas Raiders. There was an early run on offensive tackles, and some elite talents went early.

Coach Ben Johnson wasn’t just pushing specifically for a tight end.

“Ben was pushing for a lot of guys,” King said. “Outside of the tight end specific, it didn’t come down to that. We stacked a bunch of players, he had opinions — obviously he had a high opinion of Colston as well — so we felt good about a couple of guys, because you have to there, but Colston ended up being the best pick for us.”

Again, fit. That matters a ton to Johnson, who can use Loveland in a variety of ways. The Bears found that out through the draft process, watching Loveland’s tape, meeting with him at his combine and going to his pro day.

“We knew even going back to last year of what type of player Colston was,” King said. “And so we went through the full process, though. It wasn’t something where like it was earmarked from early on. But the more we spent time with him, the more we got to know him, he just felt like a really good fit for us.”