Back in fantasy football draft season in August, Cole Kmet was one of the primary picks at breakout tight end. The reasons why were pretty simple. He came into the league with quality draft standing and all the athleticism and ability you could want. He entered a situation this year that had potential for a key role. He was expected to not only be the primary tight end on the Bears, but also one of Justin Fields‘ primary receiving targets. All of this added up to Kmet being the 11th TE off fantasy draft boards — or the first of the potential breakouts at the position.
All that came to a crashing halt in the early weeks of the 2022 season.
Kmet didn’t score a single fantasy point in the first two weeks of the season. In fact, he didn’t score more than six fantasy points all year until Week 8!
[Week 11 Fantasy Rankings: QBs | RBs | WRs | TEs | FLEX | DST | Kickers]
But something happened in Week 8. Kmet scored his first touchdown of the season — and things have only taken off from there.
The Bears are on a three-game losing streak, but they’ve been firing the points on offense, scoring 25+ points in those three games. Kmet has been a huge part of that, scoring five touchdowns in that three-game span. He’s also collected 6 and 7 targets, respectively, in his last two games — his highest totals of the season.
It’s highly unlikely Kmet will continue to score two touchdowns per game, but it’s hard to ignore what seems to be happening: Justin Fields’ progression as a player is directly correlating to Kmet’s production — and Kmet is doing his part to remain one of Fields’ top targets, especially in the red zone.
What will Kmet do in Week 11?
Here’s the tight end position — check out where Kmet and the rest of the tight end options landed in our analysts’ rankings for Week 11:
2022 Fantasy Football Rankings powered by FantasyProsECR ™ – Expert Consensus Rankings