Even midseason, well into his breakout, Cole Kmet had visions of returning for a senior year and a final shot on the baseball field. Asked about his future in a November midweek press conference, he said he planned on returning.
Each passing week and game, though, gave him more to think about. He received a second-round grade from the NFL’s advisory committee in December. He ended the season ranked second on Notre Dame in catches and yards. The 2020 draft’s tight end crop was not seen as strong.
Kmet took all that into account and, in early January, made the move to declare. It proved to be astute.
Kmet was selected by his hometown team, the Chicago Bears, in the second round of the draft Friday night as the No. 43 overall selection. He was the first tight end picked, which marks the third time in the last nine drafts a Notre Dame product was the first tight end selected. He is also the first Irish player taken in this year’s draft.
“He was, clearly, in my opinion, slightly ahead of Adam Trautman of Dayton as the best tight end in this draft,” ESPN analyst Mel Kiper Jr. said on the draft broadcast. “He’ll be a weapon for whether it’s Nick Foles or Mitchell Trubisky.”
The selection caps Kmet’s one-year rise from backup to the top of the tight end class, though no one around Notre Dame was surprised he thrived when finally awarded the chance.
Kmet had 17 career catches in two years at Notre Dame heading into 2019. He finished his junior year with 43 grabs for 515 yards and six touchdowns in 11 games.
Per Spotrac, Kmet is expected to sign a four-year contract worth $7.58 million in total value.
Arriving from north suburban Chicago in the summer of 2017, Kmet came to Notre Dame as a two-sport star. He was Rivals’ No. 3 player in the state of Illinois and a top-100 overall recruit.
On the baseball field, he was an outfielder and a left-handed pitcher, an impossible-to-miss 6-foot-6 presence who hit 12 home runs and struck out 105 hitters as a senior at St. Viator High School. He touched 90 miles per hour on the radar gun and was Prep Baseball Report’s 2017 Illinois Player of the Year.
His first notable athletic impact at Notre Dame came as a member of the Irish baseball team, when he notched a team-best eight saves as a freshman in 2018.
In football, meanwhile, Kmet was stuck behind Durham Smythe and Alizé Mack. He moved up to No. 2 on the depth chart in 2018 after Smythe’s departure, even surpassing Brock Wright, the top-ranked tight end in the same 2017 class. The thought all along was that 2019 would be Kmet’s turn to slide into the starting role. In anticipation, he gave up baseball that spring so he could participate fully in practice. His assumed larger role elated Notre Dame’s coaches.
“He’s a once-in-a-lifetime guy you get to coach,” then-offensive coordinator Chip Long said in the spring.
Added head coach Brian Kelly: “He’ll be a guy we’ll actually game plan and certainly look at how he touches the football each week. We didn’t do that last year.”
Kmet, in turn, posted the highest single-season reception, yardage and touchdown totals for a Notre Dame tight end since Tyler Eifert in 2012.
About a week into 2019 training camp, though, Kmet’s breakout was put on hold. He collided with safety Alohi Gilman, sending both to the turf. He took the worse end of the clash: a broken collarbone. He was ruled out for the season opener and possibly beyond.
Kmet recovered in about six weeks and debuted Sept. 21 at Georgia. On the prime-time, magnified stage, he caught nine passes for 108 yards and a touchdown in a loss.
That was where it started. Soon after, Kmet’s name and NFL were inevitably spoken in the same phrase. The chatter only increased. A few weeks later, he grabbed six passes for 61 yards and a touchdown in a win over USC. He produced seven receptions for 78 yards and a touchdown in a dusting of Boston College.
Kmet ran a 4.70 40-yard dash at the NFL Combine at 262 pounds. He posted a 37-inch vertical jump and 123-inch broad jump. Asked in his media session if he viewed himself as the best tight end in the draft, he replied: “I do.”
“My ability to do both, blocking and split out wide receiving, is unique in that sense,” Kmet told reporters at the combine. “I’m one of the younger guys here, I’m still only 20 [he has since turned 21], so I have a lot to improve on, but for those reasons I’m the best guy here.”
Heading into the draft, most mocks predicted Kmet would fall somewhere in the middle of the second round or even early in the third round.
In Chicago, Kmet joins a tight end group that includes 34-year-old Jimmy Graham, who was signed to a two-year deal in March. No Bears tight end had 100 receiving yards in 2019.
Kmet is the seventh Notre Dame tight end draft pick since 2010. All told, he’s the 32nd tight end drafted in program history and the 40th draft pick of the Kelly era.
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