Bear Digest

Cole Kmet Special Teams Player of the Week for Emergency Duty

Bears tight end-turned-long snapper due to injury was named winner of the weekly NFC award for special teamers after replacing injured Scott Daly in the second quarter.

Gene Chamberlain

Cole Kmet celebrates with teammates in the end zone after one of his two TD catches, then he has to snap the ball on a PAT.
Cole Kmet celebrates with teammates in the end zone after one of his two TD catches, then he has to snap the ball on a PAT. / Peter van den Berg-Imagn Images
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Cole Kmet picked the right week to be the emergency long snapper for the Bears.

Filling in for injured Scott Daly as the backup long snapper, Kmet happened to be doing it during a week when there wasn't another special teams player with a particularly strong effort.

As a result, the emergency Bears long snapper has been chosen NFC Special Teams Player of the Week. It's believed to be the first time a long snapper has ever won this award according to the Bears.

Special teams players have been honored with a weekly award since 1993.

Kmet won it for snapping six times, five on field goals and one on extra points in a 35-16 victory. The Bears punted twice in the game but both were in the first quarter before Scott Daly suffered a knee injury covering on a punt.

"Yeah definitely not a position I envisioned playing in the NFL ever," Kmet said afterward.

He practices it a few times on Thursday every week but nothing more than that.

Kmet didn't even realize he had to do it at first. Then special teams coordinator Richard Hightower came over to tell him to get ready.

"HT came up to me and he said Scott's hurt," Kmet said. "And I'm like, (wide receiver) Tyler Scott's hurt? Like, what?

"He's like telling me and I'm like OK, 'like, why does that affect me?' "

Then he realized it was a different Scott and he better get in some practice snaps.

"I immediately started firing snaps between my legs, and thankfully didn't have to do any punt scenarios," Kmet said.

Kmet did it when he played for St. Viator in Arlington Heights.

"My uncle did it and I remember my dad, me and my brother would be messing around doing it in the backyard all the time," Kmet said. "It was kinda like a more-you-can-do thing, thinking if you ever needed to make a team, if you're a guy that's the 54th or 55th guy and they're deciding between two guys (for a roster), having that ability there going to keep you on the roster for those type of things."

It's the second time this season a Bears special teams player won the award. Punter Tory Taylor won it for his Week 4 game against the Rams. It's the first time since 2008 two different Bears have won.

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

BearDigest.com publisher Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.