Projecting a Cole Kmet extension with the Chicago Bears

Cole Kmet will be in a very interesting position when he begins to negotiate his contract with the Chicago Bears. Tight end is in an interesting spot, but the team and Kmet may be wanting to get a deal done this season, because neither side knows what could happen, but it could end in Kmet leaving if he is not signed by the end of the year.

Projecting a Cole Kmet extension with the Chicago Bears

With that in mind, if the Chicago Bears do approach Kmet for a contract extension, what would the potential offer look like? It will get interesting because the two names that will come up the most are Dawson Knox and Dalton Schultz. There are a lot of salaries between the two, but these two players present a wide range of salaries.

Knox got a lot more money straight up, and about twice as much per year. Schultz signed a one-year deal because his market deflated, but this was the most recent contract signed, so you have to wonder if Knox got in before the tide shifted, and Schultz represents a newer tight-end market.

Below, you can see how the players compare on the field since 2020, so they have the same number of seasons played as Kmet.

Cole Kmet and his agents will point to Knox and say that he deserves a contract in that range. The Chicago Bears will be looking at the salary that Dalton Schultz just signed for, and they will say he is not even producing as much as him.

Heck, the Bears would offer him a four-year, $24M deal right now if they thought Kmet would accept. It shows that this will be tricky because Kmet did not produce as much as Schultz, but he will be offended by taking a deal like Schultz.

Some names who signed recent deals and are in between these two are Hunter Henry, Evan Engram, C.J. Uzomah, and Hayden Hurst.

Now, you can see how Cole Kmet compares to them. This is why even though Dalton Schultz can be an easy comparison for the Bears, Kmet will point to this long list of players and say that he is much more in this range, if not higher.

This is where we could find a bar. He may not be able to hit the Hunter Henry contract, even if his stats are comparable to Dawson Knox. However, we also see that the floor is that he has to get over $8M per year, which is what Uzomah got on an open market.

So, do we come to something closer to $10M per year? The market may be tricky, and Kmet may not want to take a long-term deal. Still, 3 years, and $30M with $18M guaranteed may be closer to the magic number for both sides. What do you think, should the Chicago Bears offer this contract to Cole Kmet now, or wait to see what happens?