When thinking about the first players drafted at their respective positions this year, most are getting plenty of attention. Joe Burrow in Cincinnati. Henry Ruggs in Las Vegas. Clyde Edwards-Helaire in Kansas City. Yet nobody seems interested in talking about Cole Kmet, the first tight end selected in 2020. Clancy Barone can’t seem to understand that.
The Chicago Bears hired him to become their tight ends coach this offseason. So he had a direct hand in helping the team evaluate and select the Notre Dame standout. Remember this is a man who coached Pro Bowlers like Alge Crumpler, Antonio Gates, and Julius Thomas. He’s seen some of the best in the business do it.
That is why his assessment of Kmet on his talent was significant as Adam Jahns of The Athletic revealed.
“I always thought he did look fast (in college),” Barone said. “There’s nothing slow about 4.7 (seconds). That’s actually really good for an NFL tight end. I guess I’m surprised with how big he is. We saw him run over people in college football. That’s one thing to run over a redshirt sophomore from Michigan State or something like that. It’s a different thing to do it against a seven-time Pro Bowler from whatever team. So that part is going to be another layer of the onion, if you will, for him to digest and so forth.”
But Barone definitely thinks that Kmet has the potential to do it — even this year.
“Watching a big athletic guy like that run around, I thought Cole was very, very physical in college,” Barone said. “He does not lack courage and does not lack want to, so that part’s going to play into his game really well.”
So why is the kid not getting more national attention? It isn’t so much that people think he’s a bad talent. It has more to do with how relatively unproven he is. Kmet had just one year of decent production at Notre Dame. Not all of that was his fault. Part of it was quarterback play and also the offense not going through the air.
However, he isn’t free of blame either. Kmet spent half his collegiate athletic career also playing baseball. So a large chunk of his time and attention was devoted to that. The football player people saw wasn’t the 100% all-in guy. Experts aren’t sure who that guy is. Such uncertainty leads to an unwillingness to buy in.
Barone seems to think they’ll all find out soon enough. Kmet has the physical skills already. It’s a matter of his mental acuity catching up.
