Skip to main content

Bears Must Use Cole Kmet More and Know It

Cole Kmet made the longest catch for the Bears of the year at the time with a 38-yarder and has everyone on the coaching staff agreeing he must be used more

A week ago Bears coach Matt Nagy had seen Cole Kmet's first touchdown catch and another reception and commented the next day about how they need to give him more opportunities.

Fast forward to Monday night's game and Kmet has a tough 38-yard reception in coverage and a 7-yarder in the first half, then the Bears forget about tight ends as they throw downfield more to wide receivers in panic during a 24-10 loss to the Los Angeles Rams. Kmet didn't make another reception.

For all the talk about playing Kmet more and giving him more chances, he wound up with 20 plays, 32% of the snaps The previous week he actually had three more plays and 35% of the snaps.

So what did Matt Nagy say about this following the loss in Los Angeles?

"Cole Kmet is going to start playing more in this offsense," Nagy said. "He's deserved it. He earns it. He's a guy that I think I'm really proud of the way he's playing.

"For us, we have to be aware of that, understand that and start using him more."

Perhaps they need to talk about it less and simply do it.

Kmet has five receptions now and has twice displayed an ability to pull in difficult passes in tight crowds. To his credit, Kmet isn't focusing on what chances he isn't getting but what he's able to do and what he needs to do in order to play more.

"I think for me, just continuing doing what I been doing, because the thing so far it's worked out pretty well in terms of progressing every week," Kmet said. "So I'm just going to keep doing what I'm doing. Work on my run game with the blocking, my releases and my routes and all that stuff, just kinda continuing to work on all those things just to be an all-around tight end."

The Bears offense hasn't been able to complete passes downfield but Kmet's 38-yard catch was the longest of the season to that point. Later Allen Robinson caught a 42-yarder.

With the Bears offense limited in what kind of personnel additions it can make to improve, and no one playing a lot getting downfield for big gains, it only makes sense to make better use of a younger player who hasn't had the chance but was drafted in Round 2 with an eye on the future.

"Cole has done everything we've asked and it's no hidden secret that we want to get him more involved in this offense, whether that's in the run game and/or the pass game," Nagy said. "But for sure, he's doing a great job."

Demetrius Harris had another dropped pass incident Monday night and the Bears could use another tight end at the "Y" position learning by getting more playing time.

"I think it's pretty evident with what Cole's been doing here since we got out of training camp and into the season," Nagy said. "Now, you never know how he's gonna be the first couple games. It's not easy. Your first NFL game, your second NFL game, your third. And now here we are and we've played seven games.

"When you think about it, you look down seven years from now when he's having an unbelievable career, you're gonna think, 'Man, we were getting that antsy at seven games into his first year.' But the fact of the matter is that you saw yesterday, he's making plays. There's a trust element there I think you're starting to really see (from Nick Foles) and it's growing, and when you have a ball thrown your way when you're absolutely covered and you make a play, that's neat to see."

So it would be neat to see even more plays for the Notre Dame rookie.

Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven