Chicago Bears Training Camp: Previewing the Tight Ends

Next up in our series previewing the Chicago Bears’ position groups is the tight ends unit. Is there enough depth to last the entire season?

We continue our series previewing the Chicago Bears position groups ahead of training camp. Our focus today is the tight ends unit. After greatly improving the group in 2020, did the team do enough to continue the improvements into 2021?

The tight ends unit was a mess in 2019. Injuries and bad play plagued the group throughout the season. The entire group only recorded 46 catches for 416 yards and 2 touchdowns. In 2020, those numbers were 85 catches for 744 yards and 10 touchdowns. Jimmy Graham by himself eclipsed the entire 2019 unit’s numbers by himself with 50 catches for 456 yards and 8 touchdowns.

Can the unit continue to take a step forward and become big red-zone targets for whoever plays under center?

The starters

Speaking of Graham, his signing last offseason was big news for the Bears. There were many who criticized the signing. Former Chicago Bears tight end and fan-favorite Greg Olsen was available. Many wanted to see a reunion. Graham, meanwhile, struggled to connect with future Hall of Fame quarterback Aaron Rodgers in Green Bay. At 33 years of age, people didn’t see how he’d contribute to the offense.

Graham ended up contributing greatly. Only Travis Kelce had a better season for a tight end over 30. The incredible thing is that looking at the film there were still a number of plays left on the table. Imagine his numbers being even better. By the way, Olsen recorded 24 catches for 239 yards and a touchdown and is now retired.

The question now is whether Graham has another good season in him. Yes, he is at the end of the line. This could be his final season. In fact, many thought he’d be retired already. There were people around the league who didn’t expect the Bears to re-sign Graham for salary cap reasons. The Bears were in salary cap hell and Graham was to be one of the casualties.

So far, though, that hasn’t happened. Graham made it through the initial free agency period. Then he made it through the post-June 1st cuts. Training camp is almost here and he is still on the roster. Unless they find a proper and cheaper replacement before the season starts, Graham will have at least one more season in Chicago.

In addition to Graham, the Bears drafted Cole Kmet in the second round. He started out slowly but became a bigger part of the offense as the season progressed, showing flashes of why the Bears were so high on him. He took to Graham’s lessons and finished the season strong.

This offseason, Kmet kept learning. In addition to learning from Graham, he attended Tight End University. The camp was formed by Olsen, Kelce, and George Kittle. They invited some of the best and up-and-coming tight ends so they could give their experiences and advice. It will only make Kmet a better player.

The backups

This is where things get tricky for the Bears. Last season, they had Demetrius Harris. He wasn’t a big numbers guy but he did a good job of giving the starters a break. He is gone now, however.

Behind Kmet and Graham are J.P. Holtz, Jesper Horsted, Jake Butt, and Scooter Harrington. At least Harris had some experience and did some things before he arrived in Chicago. The guys they have now collectively haven’t done anything. We don’t know if they can even be effective backups.

Holtz and Horsted will mainly be special teams players. If they see extended play at tight end then there is big trouble with the unit. Butt had some talent coming out of college in 2017 but he’s only played in eight games in his career, and five of them came last season. He has a history of multiple injuries. He’s healthy now, but will he stay that way? The Bears had a player like that once, didn’t they? Oh, yeah, his name was Kevin White.

The reason Harrington is in camp is because of the history of tight ends coming from Stanford. Stanford has a recent history of having tight ends play in the NFL so Harrington gets the benefit of receiving a look. Let’s see if he continues the Stanford trend.

The Chicago Bears have a good duo of tight ends in Kmet and Graham. Graham likely doesn’t repeat the numbers of last season but can still be effective. Kmet will receive a lot more looks this season than he did last year so that’s a big reason for Graham’s reduction. Kmet is the future and the future is now.

Where the problem comes for the Bears will be health. There isn’t much behind the top two. Should one of them get injured, the unit is in trouble. We’ll see how Butt does during camp and in the preseason but his health is too fragile to depend on. Expect a move to acquire a dependable tight end before the end of the preseason.