Luke Getsy’s primary responsibility is finding out how to elevate Justin Fields as a quarterback. However, it is often too easy to forget that he isn’t the quarterback coordinator. He’s the offensive coordinator. The man has ten other players on the field to worry about, players he must also work hard to help improve. One of them is Cole Kmet, the Chicago Bears’ promising former 2nd round pick.
Nobody can say Kmet has been a failure through two years in the NFL. He was second on the team last season with 612 yards receiving. However, he also failed to score a touchdown. Several people had been hoping for more from him by now. The issue is they can’t say for sure if it’s because he lacks specific capabilities or if he was trapped in an offense that had no idea how to use him. Based on Getsy’s comments, one might be inclined to lean toward the latter.
“I’ve been very impressed with Cole. Just the ability, the flexibility as a player, I think he has all that stuff. So I’m excited to see him have a bunch of different roles in our offense.
“Some players that are out there, they’re kind of like this is what they do well. But I think the more guys that you can get in a system that can do a bunch of different things, the more success you’re going to have, and I think Cole is one of those guys.”
Cole Kmet sits in a far more tight end-friendly system.
It isn’t a coincidence that the position seemed to undergo a renaissance once the wide zone became popular in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Guys like Shannon Sharpe and Owen Daniels helped pave the way for others like Robert Tonyan and George Kittle. Kmet is athletic enough to fit that same mold. The best part is he has a chance to be the best blocker out of all of them while still contributing as a weapon in the passing game.
That is what Getsy meant about flexibility. Chicago can leave him on the field regardless of formation and defenses will accept it because of the different things he can do. That makes an offense even harder to predict. What makes this even better is how the passing attack is constructed. The Bears have assembled tons of speed at wide receiver with Darnell Mooney, Velus Jones, and Byron Pringle. With them keeping secondaries focused on the outside, they won’t be able to devote extra attention to Cole Kmet over the middle.
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He may never be a Rob Gronkowski or Travis Kelce, but Getsy thinks he can still play a prominent role in what the Bears are trying to build. That should have fans excited.
