\n Bears tight end Cole Kmet celebrates a touchdown reception last season.
\n AP\n <\/p>\n
Continuing this week\u2019s ranking of the top-five position battles to watch when Bears training camp starts next month, here\u2019s a look at No. 4 on the list.<\/p>\n
Check back each day this week for the next installment.<\/p>\n
No. 4 Tight end<\/p>\n
Returning player: Cole Kmet<\/p>\n
Departed players: Gerald Everett, Marcedes Lewis<\/p>\n
Newcomers: Colston Loveland, Durham Smythe, Joel Wilson, Stephen Carlson, Jordan Murray<\/p>\n
Why it\u2019s worth watching: Poles surprised many analysts when he selected Loveland in the first round of this year\u2019s draft. Kmet seemed destined to be the Bears\u2019 tight end of the future when he signed a four-year, $50 million contract extension in 2023. Now he\u2019ll compete for snaps once training camp starts next month.<\/p>\n
The selection caught Kmet off guard. But both he and Loveland were looking forward to the competition for snaps in training camp.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m excited about it, to not only push him and for him to push me and we\u2019re going to make each other better,\u201d Kmet said during the spring. \u201cI think the goal with it is to become the best 12 (personnel) tandem in the league and see where we can take it from there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kmet figures to be the Bears\u2019 primary tight end when the season starts even after a down season last year. Former offensive coordinator Shane Waldron didn\u2019t involve Kmet in his offense much and Kmet had his lowest career receiving yards (474) receptions (47) and targets (55) other than his rookie season. Kmet had at least 500 receiving yards in each of the previous three seasons.<\/p>\n
A change in play caller should benefit Kmet. New head coach Ben Johnson helped Sam LaPorta become one of the league\u2019s top tight ends during his time as the Detroit Lions\u2019 offensive coordinator by featuring LaPorta\u2019s length and speed in his offense.<\/p>\n
The major question at the position heading into training camp surrounds Loveland and how quickly he can make an impact as a rookie. Loveland missed all of the spring practices as he recovered from shoulder surgery in January. He expected to be ready for the start of training camp, but he\u2019ll be behind after missing valuable months working with Williams and the rest of the offense.<\/p>\n
Once Loveland is healthy, he\u2019ll give Johnson a valuable weapon. Loveland became an interesting selection at No. 10 because of his ability to be a big receiver who\u2019s difficult for linebackers and cornerbacks to stop. He also has the versatility to line up outside to create mismatches.<\/p>\n
Kmet and Loveland figure to be on the field at the same time during games. That could open the offense even more for Williams.<\/p>\n
But it will be interesting to watch Loveland\u2019s snap counts once he does start to acclimate to the speed of the NFL. Johnson could try to use Loveland\u2019s ability to separate with his speed and size in specific moments, which could lead to more playing time in key moments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bears tight end Cole Kmet celebrates a touchdown reception last season. AP Continuing this week\u2019s ranking of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":156476,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2070],"tags":[374,692,391,2493,769,7,6,767,768,9,770],"class_list":{"0":"post-156475","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-bears","8":"tag-bears","9":"tag-chicago","10":"tag-chicago-bears","11":"tag-chicagobears","12":"tag-content-providers","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-pro-sports","16":"tag-shaw-local","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-sports-leagues"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156475\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}