It took a while, 13 weeks to be exact, but Bears’ second-round pick, Cole Kmet, finally made the fantasy impact that we all hoped to happen. The Week 13 numbers won’t blow anyone away, but the former Fighting Irish tight end secured five grabs on seven targets for 37 yards and a score against the Lions. Most importantly, he continued to out-snap old man Jimmy Graham and it looks like they’re turning to the youth during their second-half skid.
Playing a position that has flat out sucked for fantasy football this year, Kmet could serve as a potential Week 14 Waiver Wire stash with some decent upside against a favorable schedule.
In the last two weeks, Kmet has seen 11 total targets and according to PFF, he’s run 56 routes compared to Graham’s 34 routes.
“He’s playing a lot more for us, No. 1. I think arrow up big time for him,” Matt Nagy said of his rookie tight end. “Love his attitude, I love you know where he’s at mentally, physically. You know he had that drop there at the start of the game but I have zero doubts in my mind that he gets a chance like that again.”
“But I think what we want to continue to try to do is keep scheming him some more throws as we go,” Nagy continued. “Very, very happy and I think the sky’s the limit with him. He’s somebody that when you look at, when you look back in 10 or 15 years you realize that this kid is going to have a really, really great career and you feel confident with it. You don’t really have any doubt about that.”
It’s clear the talent is there for the barely legal rookie and he looks like the red zone monster that he was advertised as coming out of Notre Dame. It also doesn’t hurt that Mitch Trubisky has no problem hitting his security blanket when faced with pressure.
“For me, it’s just about trusting the process they have for me,” Kmet added. “Obviously, they picked me for a reason, and they’ve kind of had a plan laid out since I got here. So all I can do is do things I can control in terms of going to practice every day, putting in the work and then you know on game days executing my job. Obviously, you want to be out there and compete all the time, but you understand it’s a process, and that’s what I’ve been doing so far.”
Although fantasy owners would need to be very desperate to roll out Kmet during the playoffs, he has positive matchups with the Texans, Vikings, and Jaguars over the next three weeks.
Kmet is TE19 on The Wolf’s Week 14 Fantasy Football Rankings, which is four spots ahead of the other experts.
