Remember how the Bears won on Sunday? And how even though Caleb Williams didn't play particularly well, they won with defense and special teams in a way that was all-too-familiar but still plenty encouraging? Remember how it felt to go to bed happy that the Bears were headed in the right direction, and how good it felt to truly believe that if they can win ugly games, the sky may in fact be the limit this season?
That was yesterday. Today, we panic. Today, Bears beat writers are doing their weekly Monday snap count discourse, and reader, we may have a disaster on our hands. There's almost certainly a Twitter Controversy on the horizon, and I feel comfortable predicting that after only one week because that's what Twitter does best. Beloved Local Guy and starting tight end Cole Kmet didn't have the day that everyone's been predicting for the last four years – and not only that, but he wasn't even really on the field.
Cole Kmet's role in the 2024 Bears looks suspiciously small so far
#Bears snap counts vs Titans
— Josh Schrock (@Schrock_And_Awe) September 9, 2024
— Cole Kmet only 27 snaps while Gerald Everett had 34
— Only 6 snaps for Khalil Herbert
— Austin Booker gets just six snaps as Walker, Sweat, Taylor soak up edge snaps pic.twitter.com/UHUj1fUO3i
27 out of 56 offensive snaps is a rough look. Being talked about as one of the best tight ends in football and not even playing half of the game is also a rough look. Playing less snaps than 30-year old journeyman Gerald Everett is maybe the roughest look of all. That's not exactly the workload you'd come to expect from tight end that the team believes in – although I guess there's always the chance that the Titans saw an offense with Caleb Williams, DJ Moore, Keenan Allen, and Rome Odunze but decided that the key to a win was shutting down Cole Kmet.
It's especially interesting given how much new offensive coordinator Shane Waldron supposedly loves using two tight end sets. Either Waldron decided that's no longer his move (nice!) or he was fooling us the whole time (kinda weird, but nice!) or he abandoned his entire offensive philosophy after watching Everett/Kmet in practice (definitely not this one but rule of threes dictate I added it.) Panicking after one game of snap counts is absolutely a choice, but on the other hand, we're already one week closer to a full-blown panic.
Fortunately, Bears Film Grind Twitter is already on the case. And if anyone can figure out the problem in 17 tweets instead of three, it's them. The Great Cole Kmet Crisis is here, get your affairs in order.