This weekend, we told you the story of Penn State tight end Tyler Warren, who did almost everything he could in the Nittany Lions’ 33-30 victory over USC. Warren led all Penn State receivers with 17 receptions for 224 yards and a touchdown, ran for four yards on one rushing attempt, and even completed a pass. On the touchdown? It came on a bizarre formation where Warren lined up as the center, but due to the formation, he was an eligible receiver and ended up catching a touchdown 32 yards downfield.
While Cole Kmet did not accomplish that feat Sunday against the Jacksonville Jaguars, he came pretty close.
Early in the Chicago Bears’ game against Jacksonville, Bears long snapper Scott Daly was ruled out with a knee injury. In true “next man up” fashion that promoted Kmet to long snapper, as he is Chicago’s emergency snapper.
Early in the second quarter, Kmet caught this touchdown from rookie quarterback Caleb Williams, coming on a beautifully designed play where Williams faked screen passes to both sides of the field, before hitting Kmet over the middle. From there the tight end barreled his way into the end zone, stretching out for the touchdown:
However, he could not catch his breath, as Chicago needed him to snap on the ensuing extra-point attempt:
It’s a pretty good snap too.
Kmet was not done, as he caught a second touchdown pass from Williams later in the second quarter:
Chicago converted the ensuing PAT to take a 14-3 halftime lead.
NFC Special Teams Player of the Week Cole Kmet
We have a fun update to this story, and on Wednesday Kmet was named NFC Special Teams Player of the Week. Kmet is the first long snapper to ever win the award.
Here is the press release from the NFL:
Kmet served the emergency long snapper in the Bears’ Week 6 win against Jacksonville in London, successfully snapping on all five of Chicago’s point after attempts, including two on the plays directly following his own two touchdown receptions.
