Cole Kmet's Progress Measured by More than Catches
Bears offensive coordinator Bill Lazor sought to defend Cole Kmet's one reception and three targets to date.
"The problem is our offensive production," Lazor said.
No one would debate this is a problem, even THE problem for the Bears.
The fact remains that the No. 1 Bears draft pick this year, second-round pick Kmet, has one catch and three targets in his first five games. Even the player they dumped to make room for Kmet, Adam Shaheen, has more receptions. He only has two with Miami, but it's still more. And one was a touchdown.
"You know I'll tell you what about Cole Kmet, I have not sensed any rookie pains with Cole whatsoever," tight ends coach Clancy Barone said. "I think Cole is doing fantastic."
One catch isn't anyone's idea of fantastic, but with Kmet the Bears say improvement is obviously huge in another area.
"Cole is steadily becoming a very, I mean, a very good blocker," Barone said. "People, I don't think, saw that in him when he came out of college. We did. We saw some certain traits. And he's got such strong hands and if you see him in person, he has a very thick lower body. The guy's got a lot of good power in him.
"And plus, let's face it, Cole is very detailed in his work and he takes a lot of pride I guess in doing everything right, be it run or pass."
Kmet has apparently taken to learning from Demetrius Harris, who is considered a good blocker by coaches.
"And so, he and D Harris, they have a little thing going on," Barone said. "When they feel like they're doing a very good job. They do kind of have their own little handshake and whatnot and they take a lot pride in doing a job well done."
Handshake aside, Barone pointed to the first play of the last Bears game as an example of Kmet's blocking ability.
The Bears called a jet sweep and found Tampa Bay lined up with edge rusher Jason Pierre-Paul in a wider than wide-9 look. He was so wide he might as well have been helping the cornerback. The play only went for 2 yards but could easily have been a loss, according to Barone.
"Now JPP is a real defensive lineman—the guy's got a pretty good resume," Barone said. "And here comes Cole and if I'm not mistaken all the draft experts said that was the biggest question mark coming out of Notre Dame was his blocking. He didn't just reach JPP and gain leverage, he strained his hips through the block and actually flipped his hips and gave us a nice seam to go around.
"I have not seen that from very many players in my time in the NFL and here comes Cole and does this."
Barone said he received text messages from some other tight ends coaches in the league who were watching on televison and raved about the play.
The "Y" position tight end in this offense is required to do plenty of blocking.
"So he needs to be able to hold the point in the run game," Bears coach Matt Nagy said. "You can't be one-dimensional. You gotta be able to do some things in the run game. But yeah, you still need to be able to be a (passing) matchup for us in this offense as a Y-tight end. And other times, you can put a guy like Demetrius (Harris) as the Y and have Cole as the U, and now he's spread out more, he's broken from the line of scrimmage.
"And so I just think that you're going to see more and more of that with him."
Nagy isn't down on Kmet, although he's not about to trot out any comparisons to Kansas City's Travis Kelce.
"He's probably going to kind of create his own little way of what he is because he's twitchier and he's a little faster, to tell you the truth, than I thought originally when I watched him on tape," Nagy said. "I think he has more movement to him, which is pretty cool to see.
"And then at the line of scrimmage he's doing a good job there too. So I'm really excited to see his arrow up."
So if Kmet is so impressive, it would seem he'd be targeted more or catch more passes.
"Some of it is just a numbers game," Lazor said. "Honestly, we were better than in this past game, but we're really not completing enough passes as an offense. When you don't complete enough passes, when you're not converting third downs, you always answer these question: 'why isn't such-and-such getting the ball?'
"Well, because we're not completing enough passes, and we're not staying on the field. That's where we are. We completed more percentage this (past) game, but offensively, other than some heroics to win some games—which we're thrilled with—I think it's hard to say we've been in a rhythm where you do what you want to do."
Kmet had a meeting with quarterback Nick Foles and tight end Jimmy Graham on Friday morning to talk about the offense and his role.
He says he's not frustrated with a lack of involvement in the passing game, yet, and has the playbook down well.
"I don’t think that’s something I have struggled with," Kmet said. "In terms of experience, you can’t teach experience. This is my first season and obviously you’ve got Jimmy and Demetrius who have played this game at the professional level for seven-plus years both of them. So that’s something you can’t really teach.
"But in terms of knowing the playbook? I feel very comfortable and I definitely know what I’m doing out there."
Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven
