More than a few people in the media over the past week made it clear they were lukewarm at best when the Chicago Bears took Cole Kmet with their first pick of the 2020 draft. Why? They already had nine tight ends on the roster including a recently signed Jimmy Graham. Not only that but a lot of those people said multiple times the Notre Dame standout isn’t a great athlete. His ceiling in the NFL isn’t all that high.
Chris Trapasso of CBS Sports gave it a C+. WalterFootball gave it an “O’Brien,” citing that GM Ryan Pace had lost his mind. Pete Prisco hated the pick because they already have “100” tight ends. Pro Football Focus had him ranked as the 98th-best player in the class. For those not clear on that, it means he was barely worthy of a 3rd round choice. So yeah, plenty of people thought the Bears reached.
Dan Pompei of The Athletic disagrees. The longtime Bears insider spoke with no fewer than 20 front office men around the NFL. Guys who get paid a lot of money to evaluate players. Most of them believe Pace either got a player right where he should’ve gone or even got him at a bargain.
Cole Kmet isn’t flashy. He’s just good
The primary issue people seem to have with Kmet is he’s not a flashy talent. He doesn’t explode off the screen. He’s just good at every. He runs well, catches well, and blocks well. Apparently, that isn’t good enough in the eyes of many. A problem that always comes up around draft time. People fall in love with traits rather than seeing the truth. Typically it’s the guys who can do lots of good things that stick around the longest.
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This idea he isn’t a good athlete is wrong. Since 2000, there have been 98 tight ends who weighed at least 260 lbs. Only nine of them had a faster 40-yard dash time than his 4.70. Only four had a higher vertical jump than his 37 inches. He has the best broad jump at 123 inches as well. This guy is a physical specimen. Top talent evaluators seemed to agree.
“He doesn’t have a hole in him,” a veteran talent evaluator said.
“He won’t be a total mismatch,” a personnel director said. “But he’s the most complete tight end in the draft.”
So joke about the Bears having too many tight ends. It doesn’t matter. Most of them will be gone by September. What matters is whether they got the right guy. Time will tell, but it seems they may finally done so.
