The Chicago Bears didn’t have a lot of fans when they made Cole Kmet their first pick of the 2020 draft. Not so much because everybody felt the Notre Dame tight end is a bad player. It was more that GM Ryan Pace left other players of higher value on the board in order to fill a need. Nevermind the fact the Bears already had nine other tight ends on the roster including a recently-signed Jimmy Graham.
Aside from those jokes being pointless, the concerns were mostly centered around Kmet being raw and not a standout athlete. He only had one year of starter-level production for the Irish. As to the athlete part? That feels a bit unfair. He had the eighth-best 40 time among tight ends (4.70) weighing 260 lbs or more dating back to 2000. He also had the third-best vertical jump (37.5 inches). To say he’s not a good athlete is just wrong.
Pace didn’t seem to care what the pundits thought. He’d had his own scouts constantly in his ear about Kmet. For a long time as it turns out.
“This is your well-rounded Y-tight end. He’s going to make great strides as a blocker going forward because he has the right temperament. He definitely has the body type. In the pass game, Cole’s just a big target. Big catch radius. Really soft, natural hands. You know our Midwest scouts Scott Hamell, Jeff Shiver, Chris Prescott over the top. They’ve been pounding the table for this guy for seems like a year. So when he was there in the 2nd round, we were really excited to get him.”
Jeff Shiver pushing for Cole Kmet is interesting
It’s interesting that Pace mentioned Shiver. For those who didn’t catch Dan Pompei’s outstanding close-up on the Bears scout a few months back, read it. This guy has stuck with the organization for 32 years. The second-longest tenured scout of any organization. He’s owned the Midwest regions throughout that time. Why. Mostly because he’s pretty good at his job. People gave him credit for the Bears securing guys like Anthony Thomas, Rosevelt Colvin, Mike Brown, and Kyle Orton.
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He’s also noted for giving Drew Brees the highest grade he ever gave a quarterback in his career. So the guy has a pretty strong eye for talent. So the fact he was one of the key guys who were on Pace about Kmet going as far back as a year is pretty significant. Not to mention a good sign that the Bears might’ve indeed gotten themselves a good football player.
