Thursday, March 28, 2024

Cole Kmet Accidentally Inflames Nagy Rumors Even Further

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Halas Hall has been quite the circus over the past four days. First with rumors that players want Matt Nagy out as head coach. Then a report that Nagy would be fired after the Thanksgiving game in Detroit. That forced team chairman George McCaskey to meet with both him and the team to insist it wasn’t true. Problem solved, right? Not exactly. Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune hinted strongly in his latest column that somebody inside that building leaked the information. Then there is what happened with Cole Kmet.

The big tight end probably isn’t having the best time. Here he is in his second season playing for his childhood team. This should be a dream come true. Instead, it’s been an endless string of distractions. There is no doubt this week was probably the most chaotic of his entire football career. He admitted as much to the press after the Lions game. In doing so, he may also have let slip something he shouldn’t have.

“Definitely had to shut off the phone this week. It was pretty chaotic. Like I said, for me, it was tough. I’m not going to lie, it’s tough. You don’t know what’s true, what’s not. Then you see things that are true, because you were there for them, and you wonder how those things get out. So there’s a lot of confusion in that sense. But at the end of the day you’ve got to just block it out and go play football.”

That is an eye-opener.

Kmet admitted that some of the reports that came out over the past few days regarding the Nagy situation were true. While there was no specification on which, it paints a clear enough picture already. The insiders weren’t as off the mark as the organization would like you to believe. Just look at the chaos it caused. If it was set in stone that Nagy was finishing the year, why didn’t the team simply put out a press release?

The silence from them for over half a day spoke volumes. Kmet outright admits that some of the info that got out is true because he himself was there to witness it. There is no getting around something like that. Regardless, whatever the original plans were are likely toast. Barring another change in direction, Nagy will finish 2021 as the head coach.

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Cole Kmet deserves credit for still doing his jump

In spite of all the distractions, he had one of the better games of his young career on Thursday. Andy Dalton found him eight times for 65 yards. It feels like the Bears have finally found the right ways to utilize him in the passing game. He has 361 yards on the season with six games to play. At his current pace, he will finish with 557 yards total. More than doubling what he managed during his rookie year.

A step in the right direction, though still not good enough for many. The most frustrating part is how Nagy and the coaches haven’t gotten him more involved in the red zone. Cole Kmet is a giant 6’6 target and yet doesn’t have a single touchdown catch. It is things like this that anger Bears fans so much. How Nagy doesn’t do a better job of maximizing the strengths of his players. Kmet had six touchdowns in 10 games his final year at Notre Dame.

He has two in his NFL career thus far.

Justin Fields isn’t the only player people want to see under a different regime. It is fair to wonder if these coaches are getting the most from Kmet too. Not that he is going to complain. The young man is proving to be a professional. Press conference slipup aside, he’s offered nothing but public support for his head coach. That likely won’t change the rest of the season.

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