Notre Dame’s Kmet Rated Top Tight End by Touchdown Wire

Cole Kmet might not be a can’t miss tight end prospect but none exist in the 2020 NFL Draft. What he is is the best tight end available.

Anything and everything you read about this 2020 NFL Draft tight end class is that it pales in comparison to recent classes.

Last year’s class saw Iowa teammates T.J. Hockenson and Noah Fant both go in the first round. 2018 wasn’t great, but it still had one first rounder, two second rounders and two third rounders. 2017 was chock full of highly rated prospects in O.J. Howard, David Njoku, and Evan Engram.

This year. Meh.

Washington’s Hunter Bryant, Purdue’s Brycen Hopkins, Florida Atlantic’s Harrison Bryant are interesting receiving threats, Dayton’s Adam Trautman is intriguing. I’ve always liked Missouri’s Albert Okwuegbunam. But none of them is the complete package.

Kmet is the closest thing the NFL is going to see in this draft to a “complete” tight end.

That fact alone may have been the impetus for Notre Dame’s Cole Kmet to enter his name in the draft despite 23 career games, 60 career catches and an opportunity to put up major numbers next year with quarterback Ian Book coming back and Chase Claypool’s targets to fill.

Based on analysis from Touchdown Wire’s own Mark Schofield, he made the right decision.

Schofield has him rated as the #1 in the class citing his ability to attack the seam, his catch radius, his run after catch potential, and the breadth of his blocking experience relative to other college tight ends.

Along with those positives, Schofield mentions his tendency toward body-catching in traffic, defenses finding success in knocking him off his routes and the injuries that prevented Kmet from gaining more experience.

I have Kmet ranked right now as my number one tight end and I don’t see that changing. Though some may consider me biased, I’ve been aboard the Kmet bandwagon as the next great Notre Dame tight end.

Check the time stamp there folks!

Now here’s the thing. Kmet is by no means a perfect prospect. Justifiably, there are concerns and I agree with all of those Schofield mentioned in his analysis. While the potential is there, there simply isn’t a lot of evidence of Kmet being a no-doubt prospect.

Frankly, he hasn’t played a lot of football. Even Kyle Rudolph, who seemed like he was always banged up, played in six more college contests than Kmet. But it does beg the question?

Is the unknown on Kmet a negative or is it a curiosity that will pique some team’s interest forcing him higher up the boards than we think.

I’m willing to bet on the latter.

Where does Kmet’s pro potential rank in my mind compared to recent products from “Tight End U”? I’m glad you asked.

Kmet might not be a knock-out prospect for reasons discussed but he is the clear top tight end in this NFL Draft.