The Chicago Bears have endured plenty of jokes hurled in their direction of late. Most of them regarding how many tight end they have, which peaked at 10 following the NFL draft when they selected Notre Dame’s Cole Kmet with their first pick in the 2nd round. This after handing a large contract to Jimmy Graham in free agency. How many tight ends are too many?
This is the question that was apparently running through the head of Mike Tannenbaum. The former New York Jets and Miami Dolphins GM was stunned the Bears went with Kmet. He felt it was a disastrous decision by GM Ryan Pace, ignoring bigger needs on his roster in favor of a player that can’t even run like a modern tight end must in the NFL today.
“I think this is a shockingly poor pick. They have eight million tight ends and they have so many other needs. This blows me away. This is the worst pick of the draft. Are you kidding me? They overpaid Jimmy Graham, they overdrafted Adam Shaheen. Of all the other things they need to do, why with their first pick are they adding a guy who can’t run? This is mind-boggling me to me. What does this solve?”
While Tannenbaum is obviously entitled to his opinion and has credibility as a former front office man, more than a few people disagree with it. None more so than Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly.
Cole Kmet isn’t like just any tight end to Kelly
The thing to remember about Kelly is he knows a thing or two about tight ends. He’s developed a lot of good ones in his coaching career. He recruited Travis Kelce to Cincinnati in 2009. Then at Notre Dame he went on to send several tight ends to the NFL, headlined by eventual Pro Bowlers Kyle Rudolph and Tyler Eifert. So when he fired back at Tannenbaum over his Kmet assessment, he was coming from an area of expertise.
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“I guess Mike Tannenbaum knows more than all of the NFL teams that have evaluated him,” Kelly said. “I coached him. So I don’t remember Mike being at any of our practices as he ran down the middle of the field. He’s got plenty of speed. He’ll be able to utilize it against safeties and nickel matchups. So speed will not be the issue with Cole Kmet. He’ll be able to use that speed.”
It’s the truth. Kmet is 6’6, and 262 lbs. He ran a 4.71 in the 40-yard dash at the scouting combine. Adam Trautman of Dayton, whom some had ranked ahead of him, ran a 4.80 despite being almost 10 lbs lighter. Jared Pinkney of Vanderbilt ran a 4.96 around that same size. Make no mistake. Kmet can move for such a big boy.
The scariest part is he’s only 21-years old and no longer devoting a lot of his time to baseball like in college. Football is his focus and the Bears seem poised to reap the rewards.
