The Chicago Bears were dealt a devastating blow on Thursday night after tight end Cole Kmet went down with a knee injury.
Kmet suffered the injury in the fourth quarter of the game against the New England Patriots, and the cart had to be brought out, which was the first sign it was something significant.
Unfortunately, head coach Ben Johnson confirmed that on Friday afternoon, revealing that Kmet has a season-ending knee injury. We're still waiting on the specifics of the issue, though.
"Bears TE Cole Kmet will miss the rest of the season with a knee injury," The Chicago Tribune's Sean Hammond relayed.
"He’s everything we want to be about here. He’s going to be sorely missed. He’s Chicago. He’s been here his whole life. He’s a big part of our heartbeat. It stinks. It does. I hate it for him," Johnson said.
Cole Kmet's uncertain future with Bears
There's a lot of time between now and next offseason, but it's very possible we might not see Kmet play another game with the Bears, which is the only team he has ever known in the NFL.
The former Bears second-round pick has one more year left on his current contract, but it also carries a cap hit of $15.4 million, which the Bears likely aren't going to be keen on keeping on the books, especially after drafting Colston Loveland and Sam Roush in consecutive years.
Kmet's 2027 cap hit went up after the team restructured his deal back in April, so it wasn't always that high.
There is a clear out in the deal, with the Bears being able to cut Kmet for a dead-money charge of $5.4 million and a savings of $10 million, according to Over The Cap.
One possible scenario is the Bears tight end accepts a re-work of his deal and takes a pay cut. We'd say that's more possible now that Kmet will be coming back from a significant injury, which figures to soften his market considerably if he hits free agency.
But a major factor in Kmet wanting to stay will be his role. Chicago might want to give Roush a push to a bigger role than the TE3 job he had before Kmet's injury, in which case Kmet would have to take a lesser role.
But, then again, the Bears run 12 and 13 personnel quite a bit, so there is ample room for Kmet to still see a lot of action, even if Roush's workload increases next season.
At this point, Kmet's chances of staying with the Bears are probably slightly better than 50/50.
The good news for him is that the injury occurred fairly early in the season, so Kmet has a good chance to be ready to roll by the time next season starts.
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