Dan Pompei of The Athletic said in a recent article about Cole Kmet that he wouldn’t be surprised if the new Chicago Bears tight end would be a captain on the team by his second season. Somebody on par with what Olin Kreutz was a decade ago. That’s a pretty confident statement. Especially on a team featuring a lot of veteran players. Is the kid really that type of standout leader? Well just based on the stories that continue to surface about him, the answer is yes.
Kmet was beloved and respected by teammates at Notre Dame. Somebody everyone else looked to for direction. Apparently this isn’t something he just grew into. He had it going as far back as high school. Adam Jahns wrote an in-depth piece about the tight end during his days at St. Viator, playing in one of the toughest conferences in Illinois High School Football. His former head coach Dave Archibald had a telling story of just how mature Kmet was. An 18-year old kid wise beyond his years.
“I remember he came off the field after a series and he would come by me and I’d just pull him aside and say like, ‘Hey, I’m still looking to target you, but obviously, they’re playing things different right now, you see that?’” Archibald said. “He just smiled at me, hit me on the shoulder and was like, ‘We’re dominating on the ground right now. Let’s keep it going.’
“That was the maturity of perspective that he already had as a senior. He loved catching the ball but he was just as dedicated to every part of the game: ‘O,’ ‘D,’ special teams, catching, blocking. He wanted to just do what’s best for the team all the time. And that’s not easy for people.”
Cole Kmet seemed destined to be a Bear
Aside from being an Illinois-native and playing at Notre Dame, the mental makeup Kmet exhibited made it almost inevitable that he’d end up in a Bears uniform. GM Ryan Pace has routinely targeted players of high character in the draft. That he happened to play tight end, a position the team hadn’t been able to fix for years, made it an easy decision.
Kmet is expected to become the Y-tight end for the Bears this year. His primary duties will center around blocking and being a pass target in short yardage and goal line situations. However, his potential is higher than that. If he lives up to it, the Bears might have themselves a 10-year stud. One committed to being the absolute best, on and off the field.
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