Cole Kmet offers compelling explanation for the Bears’ losing streak

No player on the Chicago Bears has a bigger reason to be frustrated by the team’s eight-game losing streak than tight end Cole Kmet. He’s become an afterthought in the Bears’ offense just one season after signing a four-year, $50 million contract extension.

Through 14 games, Kmet’s totaled just 43 catches for 462 yards and three touchdowns, a far cry from his career-high season in 2023 when he caught 73 passes for 719 yards and six scores.

And it’s not like Kmet is struggling to make the most of his opportunities, instead, he simply isn’t getting them. The Bears have targeted Kmet one time (or zero times!) in SIX games this year. That’s mind-boggling. He has three other games with just three targets. Over the last three games, Chicago has targeted Kmet a TOTAL of four times.

It’s inexcusable. But Kmet is a consummate professional who doesn’t let his frustration with the team boil over. He’s a team-first guy, which makes the Bears’ eight-game losing streak a challenging variable in his attempt to balance personal goals against team accomplishments.

After Monday night’s embarrassing loss to the Minnesota Vikings, Kmet finally showed a crack in his team-first armour and offered an interesting explanation for why Chicago has been so bad over the last two months: preparation.

“Think what I’ve learned through it all, you’ve got to be on your own s—,” he said. “Trying to get other guys to do certain things or other people to do certain things, it takes away from your preparation. So you’ve gotta take care of your own s—, and just do your job.

“If other guys aren’t doing their job, that’s on them. At the end of the day, you got to take care of your job, and do what you got to do, prepare the right way. We obviously haven’t executed clean enough and usually that’s what it comes down to in these NFL games.”

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There’s clearly a problem inside the locker room. There’s a lack of professionalism in how the players are approaching their craft, and while the team got away with it during the first six games when they went 4-2 against soft opponents, they’ve been exposed against tougher competition and playoff-caliber teams.

Kmet remains a key cog in the Chicago Bears” future. He’s only 25 years old and already presents himself as one of the best leaders on the roster. I like that he’s calling his teammates out, someone has to.