Bears tight end Cole Kmet's emergency role comes with a catch — and more

LONDON — Tight end Cole Kmet made one of his best plays in five seasons with the Bears on Sunday, bowling over Jaguars safety Andre Cisco and stretching his arm over the goal line for a 31-yard touchdown catch early in the second quarter.

Then came the hard part.

With long-snapper Scott Daly out of the game after suffering a knee injury on a punt in the first quarter, it was up to Kmet — the team’s emergency long-snapper — to center the ball for Cairo Santos’ extra point.

“My biggest nightmare came true today,” Kmet said.

It went off without a noticeable hitch. Santos made the 33-yard PAT, the Bears led 7-3, and one of the oddest days in Kmet’s football career was just getting started.

Kmet scored again on a two-yard touchdown pass from Caleb Williams, then snapped for another Santos PAT to give the Bears a 14-3 lead. Kmet finished with five receptions for 70 yards and the two touchdowns, plus six center snaps for Santos on special teams in a 35-16 victory at Tottanham Hotspur Stadium.

Santos made 5 of 5 extra points with Kmet doing the long-snapping. It wasn’t perfect — a slightly high snap contributed to Santos’ 43-yard field goal getting blocked. But by then, the Bears led 35-16 with 3:21 left and it didn’t matter. That’s how the Bears are rolling these days. When’s the last time a player endured his worst nightmare and the Bears won by 19?

“Definitely not a position I envisioned playing in the NFL ever. But you gotta do what you gotta do,” Kmet said. “There’s only so many guys you can dress on game day … so you’ve got to have somebody who can be the emergency. I’m that guy — reluctantly at times.

”It’s always my biggest worry going into the game. ‘Gosh I hope [Patrick] Scales or Scott don’t get hurt today.’ Hopefully Scott’s all right and everything heals. [I’m] just glad I could provide something for the team in that regard.”

The Bears had a few players respond in a pinch for injured starters Sunday — safety Elijah Hicks started for Jaquan Brisker, cornerback Jaylon Jones started for Tyrique Stevenson, and cornerback Josh Blackwell replaced Kyler Gordon in the third quarter.

But they all were well-prepared in practice for the situation — players who by nature practice as if they’re the starter. Kmet barely practices as if he’s the back-up. He only has two or three long-snap reps on Thursday each week, and doesn’t practice long-snapping during warm-ups. And as Santos pointed out, the Jaguars were rushing even harder than usual to take advantage of an inexperienced long-snapper, whose snaps are a beat later than a full-time snapper.

“To get thrown in a game situation like that, for what he did, was impressive,” Santos said. “For no warm-ups, doing what he did, I respect him a ton.”

Kmet was on the sideline when special teams coach Richard Hightower told him to get ready, and even then, he didn’t quite get it.

“HT [Hightower] came up to me and said, ‘Hey, Scott’s hurt.’ And I’m like, ’Tyler Scott’s hurt? Why does that affect me?’” Kmet said, referring to the second-year wide receiver. “He said, ‘you need to get some snaps in. And I’m like, ‘Oh [shoot], I gotta be a snapper now. So I immediately started firing snaps through my legs. Thankfully I didn’t have to do any punt scenarios.”

So how does a $12.5-million-a-year tight end become the emergency long-snapper?

“Someone found out that I did it in high school. These guys know everything about you,” Kmet said. “It was kind of a more-you-can-do thing, thinking like if you ever need to make a team … having that ability is gonna keep you on the roster. It paid off today, I guess. I was glad I could just help out where I could.”