The Chicago Bears are once again in a transitional phase. General manager Ryan Poles has done his best to build the roster after tearing it down upon his arrival in 2022 and building it around quarterback Caleb Williams. But a 5-12 season presented an uncomfortable truth when they fired head coach Matt Eberflus and hired Ben Johnson last offseason.
That decision led to more difficult ones over the past few months, and could lead to another one before training camp. It could lead to a shocking departure that would tug at the heartstrings of Bears fans, but could be accepted as the Johnson regime gets underway.
Trading Cole Kmet Could Be the Best Thing for the Bears in the Long Run
One of the first moves of Johnson’s regime was to select Michigan tight end Colston Loveland with the 10th overall pick in April’s draft. Loveland’s skill set is perfect for Johnson’s offense, which utilized T.J. Hockenson and Sam LaPorta during his time with the Detroit Lions, but it jeopardized the future of a fan favorite in Cole Kmet.
Kmet was a second-round pick by the Bears in the 2020 NFL Draft and has been a solid contributor over five seasons. While his high-water mark came with 73 catches for 719 yards and six touchdowns in 2023, he endeared himself to the Bears fan base with a hard-nosed style of play.
“Kmet is a guy this team drafted and developed,” Hudson Meadors of the Bears Therapy blog wrote in May. “A guy who’s improved every year. A reliable target. A red zone threat. A hard-nosed player who embodies what fans want Chicago Bears football to look like. And now, he might be the odd man out.”
Loveland’s arrival pushes Kmet to the reserve tight end position, which is an issue in Johnson’s offense. Johnson’s base package included one tight end 69% of the time last season. But when the Lions needed some muscle, they opted to use a sixth offensive lineman as opposed to a second tight end. This has already shown up during the Bears’ offseason workouts as Darnell Wright was spotted making a one-handed catch, and it could lead to the Bears seeing what they could get in return.
Bears fans likely wouldn’t be on board with a trade, but there are some benefits. If Loveland has recovered from his shoulder injury that kept him out of offseason workouts, it would allow him to get all of the TE1 reps to make up for lost time. It would also clear $10 million in cap space and allocate the matching $11.6 million cap hits to other areas of need.
It may feel like trading Kmet would be part of another rebuild. But the Bears may already be there, even with the high expectations for Johnson’s first season. Setting Chicago up for success beyond 2025 may be Poles’s top priority and could lead to a brighter future, even if it’s a difficult pill to swallow.