Chicago Bears: 4 mistakes made over the offseason

4. Drafting Cole Kmet too high

I understand this topic is widely met by many differing opinions, and I’m going to try and make sense of this viewpoint. First off, I get the take that questions if Cole Kmet would have even been there at no. 50 — maybe he wouldn’t have been there. Who knows?

I also hear the stance that says, “What if Johnson had been the pick at 43 and Kmet at 50?” Maybe we would all feel differently about Kmet’s selection if that were the case — also a valid point.

But, while the Bears did end up with the draft’s top tight end, I still think they should have waited for someone like Harrison Bryant later on, who is a jack of all trades type of prospect. Maybe not even Bryant — there were a couple of other options in the fourth or fifth round.

What would have happened had the Bears added a player like Antoine Winfield Jr., Denzel Mims, K.J. Hamler, Jeremy Chinn or Cam Akers instead of Kmet? I think the future of this offense looks a lot brighter with some of those guys, and the safety position is on lockdown for years to come as well.

Look, Kmet very well could pan out as a phenomenal tight end. But, right now, I still don’t love the selection. I still don’t think it was the correct call at that pick. If anything, Pace should have traded back and added a third-round pick in the process. That would have been the ideal scenario.

But, instead, he went out on a limb and attempted to solidify a pain point. Time will tell, but as of right now, I don’t think that selection went as well as it could have.