Bears coach Ben Johnson can’t say enough about how much he appreciates versatile tight end Cole Kmet. But in each of his first two drafts with the team, Johnson pushed to pick a tight end: Colston Loveland at No. 10 overall last year and Sam Roush early in the third round in April.
‘‘Yeah, I know,’’ Kmet said with a big laugh. ‘‘I keep getting calls from him, like, ‘Hey, look, we’re drafting another tight end.’ ’’
With the turmoil and turnover Kmet has outlasted entering his seventh season with the Bears, it’s hardly a concern. Between Loveland’s arrival and the structure of his own contract, Kmet went into last season knowing it could have been his last with the team.
Yet he’s still here and still very much a prominent figure in the offense.
Since the Bears drafted him in the second round in 2020, Kmet has withstood a change at general manager, two head-coaching hires and two quarterback reboots and is on his sixth offensive play-caller in Johnson. Somehow, though, no matter who comes and goes at Halas Hall, Kmet still has a job.
He was convincing enough as a player and person to land a $50 million contract extension from GM Ryan Poles, even though former GM Ryan Pace drafted him. He has been whatever version of himself Matt Nagy, Luke Getsy or whoever else ran the offense required.
Something about this guy just seems to work for every coach.
‘‘It’s actually really easy: You do what you’re told and do it at a high level,’’ Kmet told the Sun-Times. ‘‘At times, you may not like what you’re being told to do. But if you do it right and do it consistently, it makes it really, really hard for them to get rid of you. It’s better just to go with it and buy in, and usually it works out better for you in the long run.’’
Kmet’s willingness is his secret weapon. He has multiple seasons of 60-plus catches on his résumé. He’s a reliable blocker in the passing and rushing attacks. He has played fullback, run quarterback sneaks and even handled long-snapping duties. At various points in his career, he has been on the Bears’ secret short list of emergency quarterbacks because of his strong left arm and grasp of their scheme.
That made him an ideal fit for Johnson, who has maintained, by the way, that Kmet, Loveland and Roush are complementary pieces, not competitors.
The addition of Loveland, however, certainly played a part in Kmet’s receiving numbers dropping to 30 catches, 347 yards and two touchdowns last season — his lowest since his rookie season, when Nagy was slow to incorporate him into the offense. That’s about half what he put up in his biggest seasons, 2021 and 2023.
That dip in production likely would count against Kmet in contract talks if he were a free agent, but he has no doubt Johnson and the Bears value his multifaceted contributions.
‘‘Maybe my first few years I looked at how many catches I had or this or that, but now I look at the tape I put out last year, and I’ll stand by that tape over any year I’ve had,’’ Kmet said. ‘‘Ben asked me to do a lot of things that I hadn’t done as much of in the past, but I really excelled at it.
‘‘I’ve answered the bell when I’ve needed to and made plays, but I view my performance differently than just off the stat sheet. This coaching staff and this front office don’t necessarily look at that as my first marker of [whether] I play well or not.’’
That’s what Poles and Johnson tell him, and, in Kmet’s view, ‘‘They’ve been so honest with me about where I stand with them. Both good and bad things, they’ve told it to me. I really rely on what they say and take their word for it.’’
Kmet pointed to his epic touchdown catch from Caleb Williams in the playoff game against the Rams as evidence he’s still a threat. That play, a desperate heave on fourth-and-four to tie the score in the final minute of regulation, caused such pandemonium at Soldier Field that he often feels compelled to remind people the Bears went on to lose the game in overtime.
Nonetheless, that moment was the pinnacle of his run with the Bears. For a kid who grew up in Lake Barrington and played high school ball at St. Viator, it’s hard to beat a touchdown catch such as that one.
In a way, however, Kmet feels as though he has had a second childhood with the Bears. He was 20 when they saw him at the NFL Scouting Combine, and now he’s truly settling into adulthood as one of the more
experienced players on the roster — ‘‘It’s definitely crazy seeing these younger guys come in who were born in 2004,’’ he said — and a year into marriage.
‘‘I’ve started to grow into a man,’’ he said, laughing hard. ‘‘I don’t know if I always feel like that, necessarily, but I’ve done a lot of growing up here and matured a lot.’’
Kmet said he doesn’t waste much time worrying about his NFL future, but the question hovers: How much longer will his Bears fairy tale last?
The team had a reasonably cheap out on his contract this year but opted to restructure his deal and give him additional security. There’s an affordable exit again after this season, and Kmet is approaching the time a player in his position typically would seek
another extension.
It’s hard to predict what’s coming next, but that has been the story of Kmet’s tenure, and it never has seemed to bother him.
