Whenever someone mentions Cole Kmet in conversation, they're likely to bring up his touchdown reception that sent the Chicago Bears to overtime against the Los Angeles Rams.
After Caleb Williams dropped back and ran backwards to avoid the pass rush on fourth-and-four, the Bears’ quarterback heaved a pass to the left corner of the end zone. Kmet saw the trajectory of the ball, walled off cornerback Cobie Durant, and slightly pushed off to create separation to catch the game-tying touchdown.
Without a doubt, that was Kmet's most meaningful home run touchdown celebration of his career. But that play wasn't enough to close out the Rams. After Williams’ third interception of the game, Los Angeles capitalized on the Bears’ mistake and kicked the game-winning field goal.
Ball game over. Season over. Kmet understood all too well what comes with a new season.
“The fact of the matter is like this is a week-to-week, year-to-year league, and the locker room is going to look a lot different next year,” Kmet told reporters in the postgame locker room. “That's just how the NFL works, and there's going to be coaches that leave for other opportunities. There’s going to be players that leave either due to contract deals or whatever might happen. That was just a really special team to be part of, and I think we all felt like this could be a team that we could go win a Super Bowl.”
What should the Chicago Bears do with Cole Kmet in 2026?
There will be changes to this Bears roster for the 2026 season, but Kmet should remain as one of the core pieces in head coach Ben Johnson's offense. Excluding Williams, the offensive line, and DJ Moore, Kmet played the most snaps on offense this past season (768). He finished with 30 receptions, his second-lowest mark since his rookie season, 347 yards, and two touchdowns in the regular season.
In Johnson's offense, the Bears ran two tight end sets at a 32.64% rate, the sixth most in the NFL. Kmet played 874 total offensive snaps and was asked to block on 456 of those snaps. According to Pro Football Focus, he finished with a 62.2 run-blocking grade and a 71.7 pass-blocking grade on his career-high 80 pass-blocking snaps.
Even though Kmet didn't have the receiving output that he had produced in previous seasons, he still had a vital role in the Bears’ offense.
With the emergence of rookie tight end Colston Loveland and the Bears already over the estimated salary cap by $12.7 million, cutting Kmet before June 1 would save $8.4 million, according to OverTheCap. Kmet still has two years remaining on his contract, but none of his money is guaranteed, which means there would be just $3.2 million in dead money if Chicago moves on from him in 2026.
But is cutting Kmet, a player that Johnson clearly utilized in his offense, at the expense of saving cap space, the best way for this Bears’ offense to continue developing? Sometimes the financial gain doesn't outweigh what would be lost.
Moving on from Kmet would mean the Bears would have to acquire another reliable tight end to complement Loveland, and that player would likely see a decent amount of snaps, considering how often the Bears utilized multiple two-tight-end sets.
Now that the core of the offense will return for Year 2 in Johnson's scheme, there should be an increase in the production for all the players across the board, and that includes Kmet. The veteran tight end will likely not produce the same numbers as Loveland, who does provide Williams with a mismatch against a defense, but Kmet has a place on this team.
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And the longest-tenured Bear, along with Jaylon Johnson, should finally get an opportunity to be part of a team that is finally in a position to compete for NFC North titles and deep playoff runs.