Bear Digest

Has Cole Kmet Really Become the Backup Tight End?

Analysis: The Bears' usage of personnel in preseason Game 2 leaves Pro Football Focus to conclude Cole Kmet is now behind Gerald Everett.

Gene Chamberlain

Cole Kmet's role in the offense has yet to be determined but PFF thinks it's reduced based on one preseason game.
Cole Kmet's role in the offense has yet to be determined but PFF thinks it's reduced based on one preseason game. / Kamil Krzaczynski-USA TODAY Sports
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One preseason game, and just two series at that, have led Pro Football Focus to conclude tight end Cole Kmet is not someone to take in a fantasy football league.

The same goes for Bears tight end Gerald Everett.

This much seemed obvious after free agency, although there is plenty to be said for red zone touchdowns in fantasy ball and either one could up point totals this way.

What PFF's Nathan Jahnke has concluded that seems rather shocking from his look at only 18 Bears offensive plays is Cole Kmet actually has become the backup tight end.

"Everett appears to be ahead of Cole Kmet in the Bears' tight end rotation," Jahnke writes, based on the usage of Bears tight ends in a preseason game for two series.

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"This situation is similar to the Seahawks over the last three seasons where no one was draftable," Jahnke added for the fantasy football audience.

This is understandable. With two tight ends who can catch passes behind three wide receivers and a running back who can do it, the tight end totals figure to be down for all Bears tight ends.

However, his determination that Kmet is no longer No. 1 is something impossible to ascertain by looking at the personnel packages they trotted out for 18 plays in a preseason game. There is no game planning or defensive adjustment involved. The other personnel the Bears had available impacts this, as well.

In some ways, it's entirely possible Everett could get as many or more reps than Kmet based on given game plans and the amount of time the team is in passing personnel packages. But for now, there's no way to determine this short of reading the mind of coordinator Shane Waldron, who was Seattle's coordinator for three years before coming to the Bears. It's more likely there will be tight end 1 and 1A based on personnel package deployed.

The other conclusion Jahnke drew from the game is also premature, although probably inaccurate.

Jahnke calls the running back situation "jumbled." He states in his commentary that Travis Homer is going to be playing a role as the third-down back in the offense, which he traces back to the Seattle days for Waldron and Homer together.

Apparently, in Jahnke's mind, being on a team with Waldron in the past for both Homer and Everett means something more than it probably really does. The problem was Roschon Johnson went out with an injury earlier last week at practice and wasn't available. Johnson figures to be sharing third down in the regular season more with D'Andre Swift because both rate as good receivers.

Homer is a special teams player and an insurance policy at third-down running back. If Ian Wheeler continues showing out in practice and preseason the way he did during the fourth quarter of the Buffalo game, and proves he can handle the passing game, then Homer might not even have a place on the roster let alone a back rotation.

The role Homer is more likely to have if he is a receiving back, beyond replacing someone due to injury, is as a mop-up back in obvious passing situations.

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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.