Chicago Bears: Blunt, unfiltered grades for 2020 NFL Draft picks

2 of 5

Chicago Bears (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images) /

Tight End Cole Kmet, Notre Dame

Round 2, Pick 43

This is a fairly difficult grade to give right off the bat, because you can see Pace was clearly drafting for need, here. While you’d like to see your general manager go with the best player available on most occasions, I wonder whether or not Cole Kmet was actually the top player on their board at 43.

More from Da Windy City

On one hand, the Bears ended up with the consensus no. 1 tight end in this year’s draft. That’s a positive. Kmet immediately gives the Bears a matchup problem with a huge frame and the ability to make tougher, contested catches.

Kmet is a very good player. I won’t deny that. He’s every bit of the type of target that’s been lacking in Chicago for a little while now. However, I wonder whether or not they couldn’t have waited a little longer to grab him.

Let me rephrase: The Bears could have waited to draft Kmet, or a similar player in Harrison Bryant later on (Bryant went in the fourth round).

I think this pick was too valuable to select a tight end, honestly. Pace very well could have traded back and wound up with a third and fourth rounder — maybe even more. That would have changed the entire face of this draft.

Kmet is a solid player, but Pace somewhat botched this pick. He could have had one of Antoine Winfield Jr., KJ Hamler, Jeremy Chinn, Denzel Mims, among others, and then gone and gotten his tight end a little later.

Let’s also not forget the Bears have tried and failed miserably with another second-round tight end with similar skills coming out of college in Adam Shaheen. With that said, Pace could have done better. There’s no other way of saying it.

Grade: C

Home/Chicago Bears