Bear Digest

What Cole Kmet and Jimmy Graham Must Do to  Elevate Bears' attack

If the output from Bears tight ends simply hits league averages, it vaults the offense tremendously in yardage, receptions and even scoring

Gene Chamberlain

What Cole Kmet and Jimmy Graham Must Do to  Elevate Bears' attack
What Cole Kmet and Jimmy Graham Must Do to  Elevate Bears' attack /

Anyone who watched the clown car known as Chicago Bears tight ends last year realizes why they needed to improve the position.

The actual impact of improving tight end production levels in the receiving game to league average could be far greater than most would imagine.

Matt Nagy is very optimistic this will happen. It's why he was gushing last week in a conference call about Cole Kmet's ability to pick up the offense through their virtual organized team activities being conducted through the internet.

"I said yesterday in one of my discussions, I have yet to trump him in a zoom meeting on a question," Nagy said of the team's first pick in the 2020 NFL Draft. "I can't trick him. He knows it all.

"So No. 1, some of the advice that was given to these young players heading into 2020, right now is, to understand your playbook in 2020 is going to be the most important thing you can do than in any other year. Because you don't have a lot of time and you don't have for coaches to see what you can and can’t do on that field. This kid has that. I guarantee you, and I'll put it out there: He will know this playbook inside out. That's not going to be the issue."

The issue is more mental/physical and one Kmet won't understand for sure until he actually plays

"What he's going to have to grow with is understanding the defenses in the NFL, understanding how strong a defensive end is that he’s going to have to block as a 9-technique, or a 7-I technique on a blast play to the outside," Nagy said. "It's different: what the speed's like, when the ball comes on you, when the coverage changes."

Combined with Jimmy Graham, who still ranks as one of the league's most sure-handed and best after the catch, the Bears have to hope they can get their totals up near league averages. Just by doing that, they could immensely improve the passing attack.

Here's why:

Last year they had 46 receptions for 416 yards by players at tight end. The league average last year for tight ends was 74.5 receptions by a team for 815.5 yards.

They're almost 30 receptions and 400 yards below the league average.

the Bears had two touchdown catches by tight ends, which was 3.5 below the league average.

It's not so much the touchdown catches themselves. The 21-25 points extra they could have had by hitting league average there doesn't tell the full story.

By getting 28 more catches and 399.5 more yards, they are maintaining possession longer, moving into scoring range, maybe getting in range for field goals tries as well.

It all could add up to more points.

Even tougher for Nagy to digest was the way they used tight ends compared with the other teams using the same or similar offense—the Andy Reid coaching tree.

All three of the other rated among the best in the league in terms of tight ends making catches and yardage. The Bears were the outlier, ranking 27th in receptions by tight ends and 29th in yardage by tight ends.

Doug Pederson's offense with the Eagles had 155 receptions and 1,610 yards with 12 touchdowns to lead the league in all categories for tight end use.

Reid's Chiefs had 108 catches for 1,346 yards and five TDs.

Frank Reich's Colts had 86 catches for 967 yards and seven TDs.

And then there were the Bears, with 46 catches, and less than half the Colts' yardage total (416) and a paltry two touchdowns.

"This offense, a lot of it goes through the tight end," GM Ryan Pace pointed out earlier this offseason.

Going through different tight ends this year could make all the difference in the world. If it's just to league average, the Bears could be a far more imposing attack and a much better complement for their defense.

Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

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