How To Treat Cole Kmet as Fantasy Football Waiver Wire Target

Don’t look now, but the Bears are suddenly putting up points in bunches as Justin Fields has emerged as a dual-threat dynamo.

A beneficiary of Fields’ play has been tight end Cole Kmet, who’s scored three touchdowns over his last two games. The Notre Dame product has been pretty much unplayable in fantasy for most of the season, but his future prospects are worth reexamining given the team’s offensive uptick.

Most fantasy managers are always in search of an upgrade at tight end, and Action Network's fantasy football experts are here to determine if Kmet could be one.

Sean Koerner: Kmet erupted for a 5/41/2 receiving line and also chipped in two carries for nine yards in Week 9. However, I’m not buying him as a potential TE1 option going forward.

Yes, we saw Justin Fields have a true breakout game last week, but it was mostly with his legs. Despite being in a 35-32 shootout, Fields still finished with 123 passing yards. It’s a reminder that Kmet is probably going to need to score TDs in order to post a top-12 week.

There have been plenty of other waiver-wire TEs I have sounded the alarm on during the season: Hayden Hurst, Gerald Everett, Taysom Hill and Greg Dulcich. Hopefully you were able to add one of them if you were looking for a long-term option. Unfortunately, Kmet doesn’t fall into that category.

Samantha Previte: Kmet had a monster game in the Bears' loss to the Dolphins, catching 5-of-6 targets for 42 yards and a pair of touchdowns.

To say that Kmet had a slow start to the year would be a gross understatement. He bageled in back-to-back weeks to start the season and was the overall TE34 from Weeks 1 through 7.

Kmet and the Bears' offense, however, have shown major signs of life in the last couple weeks. He found the end zone in Week 8 against the Cowboys as well and finished top 12 at the position.

He will have prime opportunities to repeat this success over the next two weeks against the Lions and Falcons, whose defenses are two of the worst against the pass and have allowed the fifth-most and eighth-most fantasy points to tight ends this year, respectively.

Mike Triplett: Fields has been a game-changing revelation for fantasy over the past month, so there’s a temptation in thinking that he may bring Kmet along for the ride. The tight end had a season-high five catches on Sunday and his first three TD catches have also come over the past two weeks.

But I remain skeptical that the Bears are suddenly unlocking some newfound passing offense at the same time that Fields has started running for historic numbers. I’d rather invest in other promising young TEs like Greg Dulcich, Cade Otton and maybe even Noah Fant.