Cole Kmet's Promising Start

Bears tight end Cole Kmet made two strong plays in his preseason debut against Seattle but it's going to require plays in the red zone to win over some detractors.

Cole Kmet's development enters a year when much is expected and quarterback Justin Fields sees it coming.

After Kmet got on the field in a preseason game for the first time this year and made two receptions for 31 yards against Seattle, Fields was doling out the praise

"Cole's a great tight end," Fields said. "He can do pretty much all. He can block, he's a great route runner, he has great hands. He definitely brings another weapon to our offense. So, I was just glad to see him out there today."

Not everyone feels that way. Fields has always had his detractors since coming to the Bears.

COLE KMET BROKE A TACKLE pic.twitter.com/P9AYLkw6ig

— ryan maye (@ryanolsonn) August 19, 2022

 

Muchnegativity can be traced back to the "Notre Dame Hater" faction. They're going to downgrade any player from Notre Dame regardless of productivity. 

Some are fantasy owners who made the mistake of pursuing him as a rookie or even last year based on his second-round draft status, and haven't had the touchdown production they want.

Cole Kmet is going to FEAST this year.

— Kyle Yates (@KyleYNFL) August 19, 2022

Kmet has only two TD catches, but his problem was playing in an offense where the first two seasons were spent gearing everything in the red zone to Jimmy Graham.  Now Graham's gone and more is expected.

Over the past 2 seasons, Cole Kmet went 21 straight games without a touchdown tied with Tommy Sweeney & Anthony Firkser.

Kmet has the 24th-most receiving yards amongst TE & one of only 2 TE with zero TDs tied with Dan Arnold (min. 50 targets in 2020-2021).

Regression coming🤓

— Corbin (@corbin_young21) August 14, 2022

"I mean his production over his career in college and pros speaks for itself," tight ends coach Jim Dray said. "But there's definitely a lot of improvements that he's made to specifically his receiving game in the gold zone, which hopefully will be beneficial for us in this season."

Very few tight ends hit the NFL and succeed immediately. Many take until Year 3 and, in that regard, Kmet's 60 catches last year put him ahead of the game.

Zach Ertz hit 75 catches in his third season after 36 and 58 his first two years. Dallas' Dalton Schultz had 13 total catches his first two years and then 63 for 615 yards in his third year. Mike Gesicki hit his career high in Year 3 at 53, then went on to 73 catches in Year 4.

Dallas Goedert hasn't hit 60 yet in a season but it's the TD catches that seem to define tight ends more than anything. He has 16 in four seasons.

Kmet has repeatedly talked about how difficult it has been with quarterbacks changing so much in his first two years. Four different quarterbacks threw to him. He's feeling comfortable now with Justin Fields.

"Obviously, continuous quarterback play is a big deal," Kmet said last week. "He's been the guy I've been catching balls with now since the end of the year last year.

"So that's the longest stretch I've been with one guy, really. And we're continuing to grow every day, get work after practice, things like that, just continue to develop that feel for one another."

Dray sees the progress continuing because the opportunity will be there. 

The Bears came out throwing to Kmet on Thursday and got production in his first action of the year.

"I would say there's definitely an emphasis to use the tight end as compared to other schemes in the NFL," Dray said. "Like, we're going to use the tight end but I couldn't get into the specifics of wrinkles and stuff like that, but yeah, hopefully in our scheme the tight end just kind of makes this thing go along with all of your other positions. So it will be used."

If so, it might even be enough to win over some of those detractors.

Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven