Cole Kmet's First Impression on Bears Is a Lasting One

Cole Kmet reached came to his rookie moment very early in training camp during Monday's first day of padded practices.

It came when the Bears called on their rookie tight end to seal off a side on a run block.

"And I look up and I'm going against 5-2, so that's a little wakeup call to me," Kmet said. "That was my thing, wow, that was pretty cool. I just had to go block Khalil Mack and stuff."

The first day of padded practice brought it home to the Bears' second-round draft pick like nothing he'd done to date in virtual meetings or walk-throughs.

"So things like that and going against our defense, whether that's Eddie Jackson, Danny Trevathan, and those type of guys, going against all of our linebackers, D-linemen and our safeties and corners, it's pretty cool," Kmet said. "So for me, when we threw those pads on the first day and started hitting like that, that was kind of my 'Welcome to the NFL' type of moment."

From the way the Bears continue to talk about Kmet, and what he's exhibiting on the practice field, he'll be doling out some "welcome to the NFL" moments to others throughout coming years. Kmet hasn't been shying away from anything in his first few days of padded practices.

"His football intelligence and his ability to soak in these plays and understand his assignments and to understand football and defenses is extremely impressive for a young kid," veteran tight end Jimmy Graham said. "That's been the most impressive thing that I can say I notice with him.

'Also, he's every bit of 260. He reminds me a young me. He's got big legs and the amount of potential that the kid has and the amount of talent that he has is truly unbelievable."

Kmet has had more than his share of catches in regular and goal-line situations, including one diving catch in seven-on-seven of a Nick Foles pass on Tuesday that seemed a hopeless play until he somehow came up with the ball.

"I mean obviously I want to come down with those so they can have that faith in me," Kmet said. "I'm doing my best, whether we do one-on-ones, seven on seven to make those plays, showing that I'm capable of doing that. But also, getting with them after practice and working those type of routes, those plays on the ball.

"Getting with them after practice and doing those type of things to kind of instill trust in them for me is a big deal. I think I'm going to continue to rep those out and obviously I'm going to get a ton of opportunities like that in camp until our first game. Just continue to make plays for them and show them I'm capable of doing that type of thing."

Tight ends coach Clancy Barone sees Kmet as ahead of the curve with learning the offense and playing at an NFL level at this point. Even the restrictions on offseason preparation put on teams due to COVID-19 haven't slowed Kmet's NFL education.

"All that being said, if you put all that in there together, I would say Cole is on schedule if not maybe a tick ahead of schedule," Barone said. "Not to make it sound too grand, but I have zero concerns about Cole Kmet. I really do."

Kmet immersed himself in the offense throughout the summer following and during the team's virtual offensive installation. It led to rapid progress.

"For me, it was obviously a lot of help from coach Barone in our Zoom meetings and him spending the extra time that I wanted in order to get this playbook down," Kmet said. "And a lot of help from my brother back at home; we weren't doing much in quarantine. We'd go work out together and I’d get a script going and I would kind of run through the plays and kind of through it like that. I did as much as I could during that time so I could as well prepared as I could be for training camp and I feel like that’s really paid off up to this point."

Like with his welcoming moment against Mack, Kmet has had his eyes opened throughout the process. It's obvious he's not at Notre Dame anymore.

"This is a lot of faster than colleges, a lot more physical, just trying to kind of get into that habit in terms of going against these type of guys," Kmet said. "Obviously, when you're going against the top defense in the league every day at practice, you'll get used to that pretty quickly.

"But, yeah, I'm just think trying to get as many reps as I can from now until we kickoff against Detroit."

When it kicks off for real, opened eyes have a habit of getting opened ever wider.

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