Chicago Bears Fans Should Be More Excited About Cole Kmet

Despite the frustrations from Chicago Bears fans, tight end Cole Kmet is developing nicely and is on track to be a big contributor on offense.

Chicago Bears fans have suffered through a lot of frustrations over the last decade or so. The list of things to complain about is long, from the eternal offensive struggles to watching the defense disintegrate in recent years.

One of their frustrations from the past two seasons is the tight end situation. They were surprised (not pleasantly) by the signing of Jimmy Graham. However, they felt hopeful when the Bears drafted Cole Kmet, a local kid, in the second round in 2020.

Kmet was born in Lake Barrington and went to college at Notre Dame. It was a dream come true for the Bears to select him so high in the draft (43rd overall).

The fans felt the Bears got themselves a good tight end and would get great play from him for the foreseeable future. After two seasons, however, they feel he hasn’t played as they expected.

Is their frustration fair, though? Young tight ends take time to develop. Sure, you’ll have that special player who bursts onto the scene and makes everyone else look pedestrian. However, most tight ends don’t do that. They take a few seasons before they start to break out.

After Kmet’s rookie season, the fans were underwhelmed. He recorded 243 receiving yards on 28 catches and 2 touchdowns. Many wondered if picking him up was a good idea.

Let’s take a look at some Hall of Fame tight ends and their rookie totals. Rob Gronkowski, the one many people feel is the greatest tight end ever, had 42 catches, 546 yards, and 10 TDs. That’s the gold standard. Those definitely are numbers of someone who went on to reach GOAT status.

Here are the stats of some others. Jason Witten: 35 catches, 347 yards, 1 TD. Graham: 31 catches, 356 yards, 5 TDs.

Those are guys who are sure-fire Hall of Fame players. We can even look at Travis Kelce, a future Hall of Famer and one of the best tight ends in the business today. He had 0 catches in his rookie season.

Kmet is doing fine, thank you very much

Kmet was just 21 years old when the Bears drafted him. In addition, he was a baseball prospect. It wasn’t until late in his college career that he started to pick football over baseball.

Despite the fans’ frustrations, Kmet entered pretty rare territory in his first two seasons. He is one of only 11 tight ends to total 800 yards+ in receiving yards before his age-23 season. His 855 yards rank ninth all-time in that category.

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New system should bring bigger and better stats

Consider the offensive system Kmet played in with Chicago. the Bears ranked at or near the bottom in every offensive category. The other players I mentioned played on very good offenses. Gronkowski was with the New England Patriots and Tom Brady. Graham played with Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints.

Nagy didn’t like using rookies so much. He preferred using veterans in his system. That is likely the reason the Bears signed Graham. In key situations last season, Nagy didn’t trust Kmet in key situations.

This season is different, though. Matt Eberflus and Luke Getsy are running things on offense now. With Getsy, there is an expectation of a better-run offense. Kmet is excited about how the tight ends will be more involved.

You kind of see how the tight end’s involved in the run scheme and, off of that, the play-action movements and all those types of things can be really advantageous for tight ends.

Kmet more than doubled his output from his rookie season to his second season. He did so while playing on a struggling offense. Now, hopefully, he’ll be on a better system that involves him more. He should make a bigger jump in 2022. Then maybe the Chicago Bears fans will see how good of a player their team has.