Chicago Bears Position Review 2023: A look at tight end and emergence the of Cole Kmet
Our position review series for the 2023 season continues with a look at the tight ends room for the Chicago Bears. The emergence and impact of franchise tight end Cole Kmet was one of the best things about the 2023 season for Chicago. He cemented his status as a key piece of the Bears offense while also becoming one of the best young tight ends in the league.
Kmet finished ninth amongst all tight ends in receiving yards this season (719), second in touchdowns (6) and seventh in receptions (73). He also showcased excellent hands, as his 81.1 catch percentage was the highest of his career. Kmet’s durability was also on full display, as he managed to fight through a knee injury over the final month of the season, keeping his steak of consecutive starts alive. He has not missed a game over his four seasons in the NFL.
The 24-year-old tight end wasn’t alone in Chicago’s tight ends room this year, as two former Packers with connections to ex-offensive coordinator Luke Getsy, Robert Tonyan and Marcedes Lewis, signed one-year deals with the team. The 39-year-old Lewis is still an elite blocker, and it showed. He helped the Bears set the edge better than anyone this year. Tonyan, on the other hand, was a huge bust who didn’t do much at all. Let’s take a deeper dive into the stats, as well as the highs and lows the group had this past season.
Cole Kmet: 73 catches (90 targets) for 719 yards (9.8 yards per catch) and 6 touchdowns in 17 starts.
Robert Tonyan: 11 catches (17 targets) for 112 yards (10.2 yards per catch) and 0 touchdowns in 17 games played.
Marcedes Lewis: 4 catches (5 targets) for 29 yards (7.3 yards per catch) and 1 touchdown in 17 games played.
Weeks 8-16 stand out, largely because that’s when it felt like Kmet cemented his role in this offense and as a leader on the team. Whether he was catching passes from Justin Fields or Tyson Bagent, Kmet was always a reliable target. During that two-month chunk, Kmet caught 46 passes out of 52 targets and 3 of his 6 touchdowns. He also had the first 100-yard receiving game of his career Week 16 against Arizona, a feat made even more impressive by the fact that he did it by halftime. He hurt his knee in that game, and his production wasn’t the same after that. Had he stayed fully healthy, it’s likely the final weeks of the season would have been far more memorable where Kmet is concerned.
Kmet also had a standout game Week 4 against the Denver Broncos. He hauled in seven receptions for 85 yards and two scores. It was the first of two multi-touchdown games for him last year (the second was Week 9 against the Saints.
Lewis also hauled in his lone touchdown of the year in that span, a one-yard snag from Fields against the Cardinals on Christmas Eve to put the Bears up by three scores. Tonyan’s best game came Week 17 against the Falcons. He caught three passes on four targets for a season-high 40 yards.
Weeks 6 and 7 against the Minnesota Vikings the Las Vegas Raiders were a definite low point for this group. Kmet caught 2 passes for just 9 yards in those two games combined, while Tonyan and Lewis chipped in with 2 catches 27 yards. A combined 4 catches for 36 yards over two games is as paltry as production gets. Kmet had 11 games this season where he exceeded that yardage total all by himself. To be fair, Tyson Bagent started (and won) the Raiders game, in which Kmet wasn’t targeted at all.
Robert Tonyan’s big drop was also a big low. In the first quarter of Chicago’s Week 15 game against the Cleveland Browns, Tonyan dropped a perfectly thrown deep ball from Justin Fields that would have been a sure score. It was a memorable moment for all the wrong reasons, and it cemented Tonyan’s status as a free agent bust.
In fact, it can be argued that Tonyan’s contributions — or lack thereof — were also a significant low point. Tonyan was sure-handed while he was with the Packers. He had a 77.8 catch percentage over his five seasons with Green Bay, and he has a 76.7 catch percentage over his career. In 17 games with the Bears, he caught 64.7% of the passes thrown his way — the second lowest number of his career. With both Kmet and Lewis impacting the offense positively, it’s difficult to find much Tonyan added to the mix in 2023.
The strides Kmet took as a receiver and a blocker this past season were encouraging. After signing a four-year, $50 million extension this summer, Kmet delivered the goods on the field, solidifying his status as a top red zone threat. Quarterbacks had a 109.2 rating when looking his way this year, better than the 89.9 mark Fields and company had when looking Kmet’s way in 2022. Lewis was also an excellent addition, performing his role to a ‘T.’ His blocking helped Chicago finish second in the NFL in rushing (141.1 yards per game) and he provided a nice veteran presence on a young team. Tonyan was a big ol’ dud, but overall, this group performed well in 2023.
Outlook for the future:
With just Kmet under contract next year, the Bears will need to add (or possibly retain) another veteran free agent at the position. Hunter Henry, Mike Gesicki and Gerald Everett are among the tight ends set to be free agents and could be options. Re-signing Lewis, who turns 40 this year, is another. There’s also the draft — and one Blake Bowers to consider. The Georgia standout should be a top-10 pick and might be there when Chicago is on the clock at No. 9. He would be an excellent addition to any offense, and a tight ends room with Bowers and Kmet would be ridiculous. Either way, with Kmet around, things are looking up for tight ends in Chicago.
Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy will interview with the Denver Broncos on Friday, two days ahead of Kansas City’s divisional round playoff game agains the Buffalo Bills, Mike Klis of KUSA reports. The meeting will mark Bieniemy’s first interview of this coaching cycle with several vacancies open around the league.
According to Pro Football Talk, the Broncos will interview Bengals offensive coordinator Brian Callahan and Rams offensive coordinator Kevin O’Connell this week and have already met with Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn, Packers offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett, Packers quarterbacks coach Luke Getsy, Eagles defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon, Patriots defensive coordinator Jerod Mayo, Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn, and Cowboys offensive coordinator Kellen Moore.
Bieniemy has been rumored in the mix for several jobs in recent years given his success with the Chiefs as the orchestrator of one of the NFL’s most explosive offenses under quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
