It's no surprise how much the tight end position means to coach Ben Johnson's offense. Offensive coordinator Press Taylor detailed how the position impacts the entire unit.
Before the Chicago Bears selected Colston Loveland with the 10th overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, it was well known how valuable the tight end position meant to coach Ben Johnson.
While Johnson was the offensive coordinator with the Detroit Lions from 2022-2024, the Lions used multiple tight end sets, specifically 13 personnel (three tight ends), at a high rate.
According to SumerSports, the Lions ran 1,118 plays from 13 personnel in 2024-- tied for the most in the NFL.
No surprise, the Bears finished as a top-5 unit in play rate with three tight ends on the field. In Johnson's first year as the Bears' coach, Cole Kmet, Loveland, and Durham Smythe were the primary players on the field when the personnel grouping was used.
Smthe left in free agency and joined former Bears offensive coordinator Declan Doyle in Baltimore, which created a vacancy on Chicago's roster. That spot was quickly filled when the Bears drafted Stanford tight end Sam Roush with the 69th overall pick in the third round.
Current Bears offensive coordinator Press Taylor, who was promoted to the position after serving as the team's passing game coordinator last season, discussed the role he envisions for Roush during rookie minicamp.
"To be determined, that's the fun part," Taylor said. "You don't have a game for four months, so just seeing where it can go with us. Obviously, this year went where there was a lot of 11 personnel, that became 12 personnel, that became 13 personnel for us. That was something that we felt like our offense was trending to as the season went (on). So, you see a role from 13 personnel there with the way Durham (Smythe) played. Durham was a very experienced player that could do a lot of different things. We'll figure out what Sam's strengths are, how he compliments those other tight ends, and then be able to use as many tight ends or as many different personnel groupings as we need to attack whatever defense we're seeing that week.”
Despite Smythe only playing 25.39% of the offensive plays last season, Taylor still highlighted the veteran tight end's importance in Johnson's offense.
Smythe had a season-high 33 offensive snaps in Week 4 against the Las Vegas Raiders, which was the game Loveland missed because of injury. Kmet missed the Week 8 game versus the Ravens, forcing Smythe to play 20 offensive snaps.
In the six games when Smythe played at his average snaps (25.3%) or more, excluding Las Vegas and Baltimore, the Bears averaged 30.14 points per game and went undefeated.
Durham Symthe's Highest Offensive Snaps via Pro Football Reference
- Week 3 vs. Dallas (W 31-14) / 39.0% OFF Snaps
- Week 14 vs. Cleveland (W 31-3) / 37.9% OFF Snaps
- Week 6 vs. New Orleans (W 26-14) / 31.9% OFF Snaps
- Week 11 vs. Pittsburgh (W 31-28) / 29.2% OFF Snaps
- Week 8 vs. Cincinnati (W 47-42) / 28.8% OFF Snaps
- Week 12 vs. Philadelphia (W 24-15) / 25.3% OFF Snaps
The Bears produced productive results when Smythe was featured in the offense, so that should be encouraging for the rookie tight end if he can pick up Johnson's offensive scheme in Year 1.
Chicago's results with multiple tight end sets is also telling for what should be expected in Year 2 under Johnson.
The Bears might see different results this season -- the NFL is unpredictable -- but their use of two- and three-tight end sets isn't going anywhere.
"A lot of it is just in response to what you're getting from defenses," Taylor said. "I mean there, there's going to be weeks where it's heavy usage because we feel like base defense from this defense gets some predetermined looks, maybe less variety. There may be times where if we throw 12 out there and they play nickel, we want to, and we're in an advantageous position to run the ball. There may be times where if we go big and you go big, depending on who we have and the skill sets of our players, we can spread you out and we can throw the ball. So it's kind of, it's a game-by-game basis, really, as it plays out.”