Chicago Bears: Bold predictions for tight ends in 2020
By Ryan Heckman
3. Cole Kmet will have at least 30 receptions
At first glance, this might not seem too bold. 30 receptions is, after all, roughly two per game. That isn’t anything to boast about. However, when looking a little deeper, it would be pretty impressive if Kmet came up with that feat.
Our friends at Bear Goggles On wrote a piece a little while back about Kmet and how we should perceive his expectations as a rookie. They found some interesting data when it comes to rookie tight ends in recent years.
The biggest takeaway I had from their findings is that out of the 102 tight ends that were drafted between 2011-2019, only 17 percent of them had more than 30 receptions in their rookie seasons.
That’s a pretty low number, and it looks even more bleak for Kmet’s rookie year when you consider that over half of those rookie tight ends caught less than 10 passes.
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Knowing Kmet has Graham to compete with for targets at the position, 30 receptions seems like a stretch. However, I’ll say it again: “12 personnel” is going to help both of these guys tremendously in 2020.