Fantasy Football Player Notes

The 10th overall pick of the 2025 NFL Draft, Colston Loveland put together an impressive rookie season that got better and better as it wore on. Loveland finished TE12 in half-point PPR scoring as a rookie with 58 catches for 713 yards and six touchdowns. From Week 9 on, Loveland was TE2 in fantasy scoring behind only Trey McBride. Over Chicago's last four games - two in the regular season, two in the playoffs - Bears head coach Ben Johnson fully unleashed Loveland. The rookie tight end had 10 or more targets in each of those games, averaging 12.0 targets, 7.0 catches and 94.5 receiving yards over that stretch, with a pair of TDs. In the Bears' playoff win over the Packers, Loveland was targeted 15 times and had eight catches for 137 yards. The 6-6, 241-pound Loveland is a matchup nightmare with his size and speed. Loveland is the consensus TE3 for 2026 fantasy drafts behind only Brock Bowers and Trey McBride.

Luther Burden steps into a much larger workload in 2026. Last year (including the playoffs), Burden had only five games in which he played at least 53% of the snaps. In those games, he had a 15.5% target share and 61.2 receiving yards per game, which is concerning, but his per-route metrics were outstanding, with 2.30 yards per route run, a 23.6% first-read share, and 0.120 first downs per route run (per Fantasy Points Data). There's a lot of projection for Burden's 2026 season. Last year, he was stellar overall per-route with a 26% target per route run rate (11th), 2.83 yards per route run (third), 0.117 first downs per route run (12th), and 0.56 fantasy points per route run (eighth, among all wideouts with at least 200 routes). The hope and hype centered around Burden is that he can turn that small-sample hyper-efficiency into a marvelous season with a full-time workload. That could happen this year, and it sends him screaming up the weekly rankings for wide receivers, but Burden also has Rome Odunze and Colston Loveland to contend with for the top spot in the Chicago pecking order. Burden is best viewed as a WR2 with upside.

Rome Odunze's second season was a tale of two halves, as injuries and poor catchable targets derailed what started as a breakout campaign. Before Week 9, he ranked top-10 in WR fantasy points per game while dominating high-value usage, leading the Bears in targets, red-zone looks, and air yards share. The concerns are real with Colston Loveland and Luther Burden taking larger roles in Year 2 but Chicago also lost significant WR volume and touchdown production entering 2026 with the departure of DJ Moore. Odunze remains a strong positive regression candidate tied to Caleb Williams, especially if the Bears' passing game takes another step forward under HC Ben Johnson.

D'Andre Swift arguably had a career year last season for the Bears as the RB16 in fantasy points per game. He finished with 257 touches and 1,386 total yards while splitting work with Kyle Monangai. Monangai's presence didn't hurt Swift a ton as he was the RB20 in fantasy points per game after Monangai's emergence in Week 9. During Weeks 10-18, Swift remained the preferred passing down back for Chicago with a 43% route share (Monangai 28.8%, per Fantasy Points Data), but he split up the red zone work with Monangai, with 18 red zone rushing attempts to Monangai's 19. This is worrisome, but not something to freak out about in today's NFL, where most teams are utilizing some form of committee approach. It was nice to see Swift's efficiency numbers bounce back after a horrible 2024 season. Last year, he ranked 13th in explosive run rate, 11th in rushing success rate, and 20th in missed tackle rate. Swift should be a mid-range RB2 again this season.

After an uneven rookie season in which he finished QB16 in fantasy scoring, Caleb Williams took a big step forward in 2025 under new Bears head coach and playcaller Ben Johnson, finishing QB6 in fantasy scoring. Williams threw for a franchise-record 3,942 yards. He boosted his yardage per pass attempt from 6.3 as a rookie to 6.9. He bumped his TD rate from 3.6% to 4.9%, while slashing his sack rate from 10.8% to 4.1%. There's still room for improvement. Williams completed only 58.1% of his throws last season, and he's a notoriously slow starter who sometimes slumbers through the first half of games. But Williams is a remarkable athlete capable of extraordinary throws. He adds some fantasy value as a runner (388 rushing yards and three TD runs last year), though he prefers to use his mobility to buy additional time to throw. Williams has a bright future, and with Johnson as his mentor and a pass-catching corps that includes TE Colston Loveland and WRs Rome Odunze and Luther Burden, a high-end QB1 fantasy season is within reach.

Kyle Monangai is a solid RB3/flex option with high-end handcuff appeal for 2026. Last year, in Weeks 10-18, Monangai led D'Andre Swift with 19 red zone rushing attempts compared to Swift's 18 while producing as the RB33 in fantasy points per game. During the same span, Monangai averaged 12.2 touches and 55.8 total yards while having a 28.8% route share (per Fantasy Points Data). Monangai is a serviceable early down hammer for Chicago, ranking 24th in explosive run rate, 21st in rushing success rate, and 20th in yards after contact per attempt. If Swift misses any time, Monangai would be Chicago's lead back and an RB1/2.

The Bears have an ascendant offense under second-year head coach Ben Johnson, giving Bears kicker Cairo Santos some fantasy appeal for 2026. Santos tied for 15th among kickers in fantasy points per game last season with 8.8. The 34-year-old kicker's field goal accuracy has waned in recent years. Santos converted 91.1 of his FG attempts over a four-year span from 2020 to 2023, but he's hit just 83.6% of his field goals over the last two seasons. Fantasy managers should also consider that Santos plays his home games in Chicago's Soldier Field, where weather often becomes a factor late in the season.

Best turnover luck imaginable last season and still didn't finish as a top-12 unit in 2025.