Colston Loveland provides recovery update for Chicago Bears training camp

Chicago Bears first-round pick Colston Loveland has been sidelined throughout the 2025 NFL offseason as he recovers from shoulder surgery. He went under the knife during the run-up to the 2025 Draft, which put the Bears and the rest of the league on notice of his expected recovery time.

Still, Loveland’s undeniable skill set as a 6-foot-6 pass-catching mismatch made him too good to pass up at No. 10 overall, even with his cloudy health outlook.

Those clouds parted a bit recently when Loveland provided a promising update on his recovery and 2025 training camp timeline.

“It feels good,” Colston Loveland told reporters Tuesday during a fundraiser at Great Wolf Lodge in Gurnee. “Best it’s felt. Planning to go Week 1 of camp. That’s the plan. We’ll see.”

This comes a few days after Loveland told reporters at a youth football camp that he won’t know how his shoulder really is until he knows. Meaning, it’ll take some real football action before a true assessment can be made.

Colston Loveland ready to test his shoulder at Bears camp

“It’s been good. There haven’t really been live bullets flying yet,” Loveland said of his recovery, via Aaron McMann of MLive. “We’ll really know in camp once I get out there, doing a lot more stuff.”

If Colston Loveland misses any time at the start of Bears training camp, his odds of surpassing veteran Cole Kmet in the starting lineup will drop significantly. Sure, Loveland’s upside as a receiver is far greater than anything Kmet has proven capable of during his career. But he must establish that he is worthy of the coaching staff’s trust early in his rookie season.

Loveland still has another nine days or so before training camp begins. There’s even more time than that before the Chicago Bears start full-contact practices. Hopefully, his recovery will be complete, and his ascent up the depth chart will begin.