The Chicago Bears didn’t know what to expect when they went into the 2025 NFL draft. They knew how things would likely go for them at the 10th overall pick. If it broke as expected, Michigan tight end Colston Loveland was their target. Sure enough, that is how it unfolded. The next round was where it got tough to forecast. General manager Ryan Poles and head coach Ben Johnson hoped to land Ohio State running back Treyveon Henderson. Instead, he went one pick before Chicago to the New England Patriots in the 2nd round. That forced the Bears to pivot to Missouri wide receiver Luther Burden.

Such bad luck ended up giving the team their two most explosive weapons in what became a division-winning season. Loveland led the team with 713 yards while Burden added 652 despite both getting limited reps early in the year. Now they’re expected to be focal points of the offense going into 2026. Given how they finished last season, it feels like Loveland and Burden are poised for big numbers. Bears fans may not realize it, but this puts them in a position to achieve serious NFL history.

Colston Loveland and Luther Burden have a chance to join rare company.

Plenty of NFL franchises have fielded pass-catching tandems that reached 1,000 yards together in the same season. Mark Clayton and Mark Duper did it for Miami in the 1980s, as did Jerry Rice and John Taylor in San Francisco. Marvin Harrison and Reggie Wayne did it with Indianapolis. Isaac Bruce and Tory Holt did it for St. Louis. However, all of those combos have something in common. All of them featured players who were drafted in different years from each other.

Only twice in NFL history has the league seen two players from the same draft class reach 1,000 yards together in the same season. The first was Chad Johnson and T.J. Houshmandzadeh in Cincinnati. They were drafted together in 2001 and accomplished the feat in 2006 and 2007. The other was Demaryius Thomas and Eric Decker in Denver. They arrived in 2010 and also did it twice in 2012 and 2013. Colston Loveland and Luther Burden are perfectly positioned to become just the third pairing ever to do it.

This is not wishful thinking.

Burden had 652 yards on 60 targets last season. If you give him 100 targets on that same pace, which is entirely plausible, he would have 1,086 yards. As for Loveland, he had 635 yards over the final 11 games of last season. That would’ve averaged out to 981 yards in a full 17 games. Again, they both did this as rookies who weren’t the two most targeted players on the team. That was Rome Odunze and D.J. Moore. The latter was traded this offseason to Buffalo. Those targets will be distributed elsewhere, including Loveland and Burden.

Coach Johnson has already said he plans to utilize those two heavily in the offense moving forward. He did draft them after all. His confidence in their ability is sky-high. The only obstacle figures to be health, both for them and quarterback Caleb Williams. If that holds, they could be the first Bears duo since Alshon Jeffery and Brandon Marshall to crack 1,000 yards in a season, and the third pair of draftmates ever to do it. That would be an incredible bit of history to achieve.

For some time, I’ve been wondering what team, if any, the 2025 Chicago Bears reminded me of. There were plenty of similarities with notable teams from the past. You had the 2017 Los Angeles Rams when a hotshot young offensive coach (Sean McVay) immediately turned a dismal team around to make the playoffs. You could even go all the way back to 1975 when Ted Marchibroda helped spark a turnaround with the Baltimore Colts by rescuing talented quarterback Bert Jones.

However, when looking at this Bears team in its entirety, there is one example that lines up remarkably well. That is the 2006 New Orleans Saints. We all know the story. A young hotshot coach, Sean Payton, takes over a dismal team fresh off one of its worst seasons. He gets paired with a quarterback who has flashed lots of promise but lingering questions about him in Drew Brees. Then, through a mixture of offensive firepower and timely big plays on defense and special teams, they fostered a remarkable turnaround that got them to the playoffs.

The Chicago Bears share much in common with those Saints.

How they came together is one. Head coach Ben Johnson, like Payton, arrived in Chicago following one of the team’s worst seasons. He was a highly touted offensive wizard surrounded by questions on if he had the leadership necessary to turn around such a listless organization. He paired with Caleb Williams, who, like Brees, had loads of talent but lingering concerns about his true long-term viability. Most expected a bumpy road ahead that first season. What followed was a magical run to 11-6 and a division title, reigniting a dormant fanbase.

When you look at the actual metrics, the parallels between the two teams are kind of spooky. Offensively, they’re almost identical in yardage and touchdown passes, were both top 10 in points scored, and each won their playoff opener at home with a comeback.

Why this comparison is great news…….and why it’s not.

Following that 2006 season was the start of a truly special run for the Saints. Payton and Brees formed the most lethal coach-quarterback combination in football, putting up ungodly numbers and carrying the organization to its greatest stretch of success in its history. Brees would cement himself as a no-doubt Hall of Famer, setting multiple passing records, and Payton established himself as one of the great offensive minds of his generation. Together, they would bring a Super Bowl championship to New Orleans.

Bears fans have to love that, right? There was one problem. It took the Saints longer than they’d care to admit to get there. Despite getting so close in 2006, it ended up taking them another three years to finally reach the big game in 2009. This was because the next two seasons were characterized by defensive issues. It ranked 26th in 2007 and 23rd in 2008. New Orleans missed the playoffs both years despite excellent offensive performance. It took a while for them to build up that side of the ball with a mixture of fortunate draft hits (Roman Harper and Tracy Porter), savvy trades (Jonathan Vilma), and one big free agent hit (Darren Sharper).

This is the same problem the Bears face. Their defense was not good last season, despite leading the NFL in takeaways. Several clear roster holes remain unresolved. Holes that are likely not getting fixed this year. That means a defensive jump, if there is one, will be minor at best. That means, like the Saints, the offense will have to carry the load because it may take time for this problem to resolve. The project is far from finished.

Plenty of quarterbacks have earned respect from other NFL teams. Those are guys who are talented and capable leaders, always able to keep their teams in games. There have only been a select few who have instilled genuine fear in opposing players just by their mere presence. Names that come to mind include Joe Montana, John Elway, Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Aaron Rodgers, and Patrick Mahomes. These were guys who could find several different ways to beat you and were never out of games, regardless of the score. It sounds like Caleb Williams is fast entering that conversation.

At least according to other NFC North teams.

Stacey Dales has covered the division for several years as a sideline reporter. She’s spoken with representatives and players from all four teams. She told 104.3 The Score that, based on what she has heard from Green Bay, Minnesota, and Detroit, Williams is the most feared quarterback. It primarily stems from his uncanny ability to wiggle out of trouble and hit big plays off-script. Such a Houdini act has defenses losing sleep every time they have to go up against the Chicago Bears quarterback.

Caleb Williams presents challenges you can’t fully account for.

At least with Brady and Manning, you knew they weren’t running away from you. Williams is the evolution of what Randall Cunningham and Michael Vick started in the 1990s and 2000s. Not only is he dangerous with his legs, but he also couples that with one of the strongest arms in the NFL that can hit receivers at any level. There is nothing more demoralizing to a defense than watching a quarterback slither out of sacks seemingly every other play and then hitting chunk plays for 10, 20, or 30 yards.

Williams is credited with avoiding 50 sacks last season. His ability to sense pressure and then contort his body to shrug off rushers was impossible to quantify. He did it almost every week, and seemed to save his biggest highlights for the division. Every rival felt the sting at least once in their meetings last season. Getting a free rusher worked on him many times in 2024. Last season, he started making teams pay for being too aggressive. He was actually better against the blitz than he was regular four-man rushes.

There is no singular solution.

That is the biggest problem. Most quarterbacks have one specific way you can attack them and expect favorable results. That isn’t the case with Caleb Williams. Not anymore. Blitz him and the odds are good he’ll find a running lane to get the yards himself. Don’t blitz him and he will either hit the open man from a strong pocket or scramble out of trouble to make a play off-script. It is utterly maddening. The only thing defenses have to lean on is his low completion percentage, which can sometimes stall drives.

Yet even that didn’t stop him last season. Williams had the worst completion percentage in the NFL but still almost hit 4,000 yards, had 27 touchdowns, went 11-6, and won a playoff game. It’s little wonder defenses felt helpless at times. Even if something did work against Williams, it didn’t work for long. He always solved the puzzle by the end of the game, then struck when everybody was gassed. When a quarterback does that enough times, defenses start to expect it.

That is true fear.