Cole Kmet Inks 4-year, $50 Million Deal

Tight end Cole Kmet and the Chicago Bears have reached a contract extension. Kmet is now signed through 2027, where he will make 12.5 million a year starting in 2024. This is huge for the young TE who broke out last year, finishing as the TE seven in half ppr scoring.

Overview

Kmet was a second round draft pick out of Notre Dame in 2020. He started his career playing behind Jimmy Graham. His rookie year he put up 28 receptions, 243 yards, and 2 TDs.

His sophomore season he saw 93 targets, catching 60 of them for 612 yards. Sadly, he scored 0 touchdowns in 2021. He finished the year averaging only 5.5 fantasy points per game, but left hope for a breakout by seeing 93 targets.

A Reason to Believe

After earning 93 targets in 2021, many in the fantasy world, including yours truly, had Kmet pegged as a breakout option in 2022. There was room for positive TD regression.

However, he started the year with just two targets and two goose eggs for fantasy players. Things didn’t quite click for Kmet until week 8 when he scored his first touchdown. He went on to become the TE 3 in points per game, averaging 10.2 ppg from weeks 8 through 18. This was the breakout we were all waiting for, and those that were patient were rewarded.

With the contract extension I would be looking to buy Cole Kmet in dynasty. He is only 24 years old, yet he has been in the league for three years already. TEs typically take awhile to develop, so the fact that he is going into year four at his age is an advantage. The offense is staying the same as the head coach and offensive coordinator will both return. The team added Chase Claypool late last year in a trade and DJ Moore this offseason. Things are looking up for this team as Justin Fields also broke out as a dual threat QB in 2022.

The addition of Moore means Kmet will not lead this team in targets, but the number two option is a wide-open race. Darnell Mooney probably has the inside track, but Kmet did lead the Bears in red zone targets last year with nine. He also led the Bears in targets with 69, but Mooney only played in 12 games.

TE Rankings

Cole Kmet is the TE16 on the popular crowd-sourcing site keeptradecut.com. After his season, there is no reason he should be that low. I had him ranked as the TE10 going into last year, and I would say that hasn’t changed.

There is no reason rookies Michael Mayer and Sam LaPorta should be ranked above him. It could be two to three years before we see anything from them and Kmet is only two years older. If you want to bank on Dalton Kincaid, I can understand that, but we still haven’t seen anything from him yet and he’s only a few months younger. The Titans just added DeAndre Hopkins, which moves Chigoziem Okonkwo down the pecking order. Evan Engram had a nice breakout year after years of mediocrity, but he’s almost 29. Everyone seems to love Pat Freiermuth (TE8), but he finished below Kmet and his situation isn’t any better. In fact, it is probably worse. The same goes for Greg Dulcich, who is not much younger and has a good group of WRs to compete with.

Hitching your wagon to Cole Kmet isn’t a bad play. If the last 11 weeks of the season are any indication of what is to come, then he is way too low in the consensus rankings. You can take advantage of that right now and pick him up cheap.