In an ordinary offseason, Bears coach Matt Nagy wouldn’t be forced to evaluate the team’s top draft pick from one side of a computer screen. But that’s what he did last month, when he tried to stump rookie tight end Cole Kmet about the Bears’ playbook during the team’s virtual rookie minicamp.
“I can’t trick him,” Nagy said last month, “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. ... [That] 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 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.”
In any ordinary offseason, the Notre Dame alum wouldn’t be participating in his first all-team meeting via the Internet. The Bears began virtual organized team activities Monday, bringing together rookies and veterans alike for video calls.
Real information gathering won’t come until the Bears are actually allowed to practice — or Nagy can actually sit in the same room with his players. Still, consider the coach optimistic — even more so than usual — about Kmet.
He’s noticed a trend in the 20 or so guest speakers — elite athletes from across all sports — that have spoken to Bears players on Zoom.
“They’ve got that ‘want,’” Nagy said. “They got that little different thing that makes them great.”
Nagy sees that in Kmet. And, yes, he claims he can tell from Zoom meetings.
“What [Kmet] is 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.
“He’ll do that because he has the ‘want.’ So when you see that feeling of someone like Cole, you see the personality, the size, the strength, the makeup. How do you not get excited about that? I am, and I’m looking forward to his future.”
It would be wise for him to temper his expectations in Year 1, though. Tight end is the most difficult position, save for quarterback, to learn. It combines blocking skills and terminology required of offensive linemen — against the world’s best edge rushers —with pass routes required of tight ends. That’s particularly true for Kmet, who will primarily play the “Y” tight end spot — an in-line blocker rather than the “U” position that splits out wide. The Bears gave Jimmy Graham $16 million over two years to play “U.”
Since the NFL-AFL merger in 1970, Kmet is the 92nd tight end to be selected in the top 43 of the draft. Forty-six — exactly half — finished their rookie year with fewer than 250 receiving yards.
That’s no mere reflection of a more run-friendly league, either: Since 2014, four out of the 10 players drafted in the top 43 — Mike Gesicki, Hayden Hurst, Eric Ebron and Austin Sefarian-Jenkins — finished their rookie year with fewer than 250.
The greatest modern tight end, Rob Gronkowski had 42 catches for 546 yards as a rookie in 2010 — making him, ostensibly, as effective as the Bears’ Trey Burton was in 2018. Eagles star Zach Ertz had 36 catches for 469 yards as a rookie.
And then there’s Travis Kelce, who played exactly one special teams down as a Chiefs rookie in 2013. He grabbed his coaches’ attention in the first game of the following preseason, catching a post pass against the Bengals and sprinting 69 yards — past the cornerback and safety — for a touchdown.
“That’s when we knew, ‘Wow,’” said Nagy, a Chiefs assistant at the time. “Is Cole Kmet that? No. That’s not who he is. They’re different styles. But at the same time, what we see in Cole is a player, whether it’s the ‘Y’ position or the ‘U’ position … The ceiling for him is so high. Because, No. 1, he wants it.”
