The Chicago Bears selected Cole Kmet, Tight End, out of Notre Dame. He was the 43rd pick in the second round and was the first tight end drafted in the 2020 NFL Draft.
Cole Kmet is 6’6” and 262 pounds. He played three years at Notre Dame and will be 21 years old at the beginning of the 2020 NFL Season. Kmet suffered a broken collarbone in college but nothing that should linger or affect his NFL or dynasty draft position.
Kmet really came into his own his junior year where he took over as the starting tight end. Playing in 10 games, Kmet hauled in 41 receptions for 515 yards and six touchdowns. Kmet appears to have a pretty good burst of speed off the line of scrimmage but not at an elite level. His film shows that he has very good hands and a knack for finding open space in the defense. Kmet ran a nice route tree at Notre Dame and was used a fair amount as a blocker which should allow him to stay on the field at the next level. While none of his skills are particularly elite, he has shown improvement each year and figures to be in the league for a long time.
Please enjoy this free preview of Factory Sports dynasty football content. If you are not already a Factory Sports member, you can sign up right here. For just $19.99 a year, you get all of our Dynasty, Redraft, IDP, Devy, and DFS content. Become a member today.
The Bears haven’t had a great tight end since Martellus Bennett, and they’re hoping that Kmet can be the long term answer there. The Bears had the second-fewest receptions by a tight end in the NFL in 2019 and this is a huge position of need. Nick Foles, the likely starter, will need targets to throw to; with a 6’6” frame, Kmet fits that bill. Chicago ranked in the bottom 10 in yards per game through the air in 2019, prompting the need for a quarterback change. The Bears have David Montgomery in the backfield, and he is likely going to take a step forward in 2020, but they will need to air out the ball in order to compete in a stacked NFC North division. Matt Nagy will move the ball with some speed on offense and Kmet can be on the field for all three downs. There may be some growing pains for the Bears offense with a new quarterback at the helm, but Kmet projects to stick around in this offense for years to come.
Kmet does a lot of things well. He can block, he has good hands, runs good routes, and has some decent speed (4.70 second 40-yard-dash). He does not figure to be an elite tight end but has the skills to stick in the NFL for many years. Kmet had a college dominator rating of 20.8% putting him in the 66th percentile for his position. He commanded close to a 20% target share in his Junior year and had a 69.4% catch rate.
I don’t believe that he will ever be a top-five TE, but he could eventually be locked in around TE 10. Kmet would be a nice selection in mid-to-late round three of rookie drafts, especially in tight end premium.
