The Bears’ leading pass-catcher is not one of the obvious choices. It’s not Rome Odunze, the former first-round pick who had five touchdowns in the Bears’ first four games. Or DJ Moore, who is in the middle of a four-year, $110 million deal. Nor is it rookie Luther Burden, whose 138 receiving yards against the 49ers were the most any Bear had all season. It’s not another former second-round pick, tight end Cole Kmet, or running back D’Andre Swift.<\/p>\n
It’s rookie tight end Colston Loveland, who finished the regular season with a team-high 58 catches and 713 yards. It took a late push: 28% of his catches and 26% of his yards came in the last two games of the season. He’s the leading receiver on a team that, by design, isn’t supposed to have one. Ben Johnson’s plan to start the season was to give quarterback Caleb Williams as many options as possible.<\/p>\n
He’s spread the ball around in his two previous matchups against Sunday’s playoff rival, the Packers. In their first meeting, the Bears completed passes to nine pass-catchers. They threw to seven in their second. "Hopefully we’ll be able to use that to our advantage [Saturday]," Johnson said Tuesday. "Because we’ve got a lot of weapons."<\/p>\n
They could get their best one back. Odunze, who hasn’t played since Nov. 28 because of a chronic foot issue, returned to practice Friday, albeit on a limited basis. Odunze first thought he’d return Dec. 14 against the Browns but felt pain during warmups and was scratched. Williams texted him after the game and said he was looking forward to getting him back for the playoffs.<\/p>\n
That would be one more weapon on a team full of them. The Bears are one of four NFL teams with seven players who have caught at least 30 passes. They’re the only team with seven receivers who have 299 receiving yards or more. Johnson credited general manager Ryan Poles for acquiring them \u2014 he’s either drafted, signed or traded for all but Kmet. "We’ve got a number of players on the perimeter, in the backfield, that can hurt teams \u2026" Johnson said. "You probably look at us and you don’t say, ‘Hey, we just want to take away this one particular player.’ You’ve gotta defend the entire field. That’s the way we really wanted it."<\/p>\n
The Bears have had six players lead them in receiving yards in a game. Four of the last five weeks, though, it’s been a rookie. "Ben \u2014 and our coaching staff \u2014 does such a good job of putting guys in the right spots," Kmet said. "I think we’re all in it. We’re all put in situations where we can really succeed \u2026 When those moments come up, guys are able to excel." Williams credited brutal training camp days \u2014 but also communication toward the end of the season.<\/p>\n
Planning the playbook this week gives Johnson a lot of options. That’s a good problem for the head coach \u2014 and play-caller \u2014 to have. "All these guys know that they’ll have plays in this week to make an impact on this game." He said. "Caleb’s job is to help distribute that football so they all get an opportunity to do that."<\/p>\n
Q: Who is the Bears’ leading pass-catcher?
\nA: The Bears’ leading pass-catcher is rookie tight end Colston Loveland.
\nQ: How many players have caught at least 30 passes for the Bears?
\nA: The Bears have seven players who have caught at least 30 passes.
\nQ: Who might be returning to the team?
\nA: Rome Odunze, who hasn’t played since Nov. 28, might be returning to the team after practicing on a limited basis.
\nQ: What is the Bears’ strategy in their pass game?
\nA: The Bears’ strategy is to spread the ball around and give quarterback Caleb Williams as many options as possible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Introduction to the Bears’ Pass Game The Bears’ leading pass-catcher is not one of the obvious choices. It’s not Rome Odunze, the former first-round pick who had five touchdowns in the Bears’ first four games. Or DJ Moore, who is in the middle of a four-year, $110 million deal. Nor is it rookie Luther Burden, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35072,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-35070","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/cst.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/0545c16\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/5385x3074+0+259\/resize\/1461x834!\/quality\/90\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F46%2F55%2F1344a2dd414e9bd0ab8062793d63%2Fbears-010526-41.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35070"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35070"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35070\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35073,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35070\/revisions\/35073"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}