The Bears may have two of the NFL’s next first-time Pro Bowlers sitting right in front of everyone.
Chicago has spent the last four drafts stacking real talent, and the result is a roster loaded with young players who could break through in 2026. Ryan Poles and Ben Johnson have helped build a group that includes Darnell Wright, Caleb Williams, Rome Odunze, Colston Loveland, Luther Burden III, Ozzy Trapilo, Kyle Monangai and Dillon Thieneman. That’s a lot of upside in one locker room, and two names keep rising to the top: Williams and Loveland.
Sports Illustrated’s Conor Orr included both players on his list of eight candidates to earn their first Pro Bowl nod in 2026, and the case for each is easy to see.
On Loveland, Orr pointed to how naturally he fits into an offense built to move pieces around and create mismatches. He wrote:
"Loveland is sort of a hyperextension of Sean McVay’s and Kyle Shanahan’s quest to create the perfectly amoebic offense that plays like several different personnel groupings. We saw him capably catching passes out wide last year and even out of the backfield as a fullback (it wasn’t just Tyler Warren).
Loveland impressed me the most, though, when watching his second-nature reaction to moments when Caleb Williams was scrambling or turning his back to the field. Loveland knew exactly where and when to break and caught a healthy number of additional balls simply due to his developing relationship with Williams."
That connection showed up all season, and especially late. In the last four games of the regular season and the playoffs combined, Williams targeted Loveland 10 times in each of those games.
Loveland’s production backed up the buzz. Last season, he finished with 713 yards and six touchdowns, both of which the Bears.
Williams, meanwhile, is already operating on a different level. Orr described him as a player who could be expected to have the kind of season Jayden Daniels was supposed to have a year ago, with all the pressure and hype that comes with that kind of label. He also highlighted one trait that keeps Williams dangerous: his ability to avoid sacks and extend plays.
"Williams is now expected to have the season this year that Jayden Daniels was expected to have a year ago, which creates both perilous expectations and relentless hype. The difference, I think, is that Williams’s sack avoidance will remain an elite trait for at least another few seasons of his peak athleticism, which will allow him to buy time and capture more chunk-downfield plays.
The Bears were already elite at this, ranking fifth in the league in explosiveness, with an offense that will only grow. It’s fair to point out that Chicago’s performance against elite opponents last season left some question marks on the table, though we should have an indication as to how this prediction is going after Week 3.
Williams will face Ejiro Evero, Brian Flores and Vic Fangio in consecutive weeks-in my opinion, three of the top seven defensive coordinators in the NFL."
Williams already has the résumé to match the attention. He broke a franchise record for passing yards in a season and led the most comebacks and game-winning drives in NFL history last season, making him a top-10 quarterback entering 2026.
For all the talk about Williams spreading the ball around early in his NFL career, the Loveland pairing has become impossible to miss. The Bears quarterback and tight end are both under 25, and that alone makes the idea of them getting even better in 2026 a pretty unsettling one for the rest of the league.
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