Cole Kmet Fantasy Football Upside is High in Week 5

For the Cole Kmet “truthers” out there, it has been a rough start to the fantasy football season. The second-year Chicago Bears tight end has only eight catches for 59 yards to his name.

However, the Cole Kmet fantasy football potential is high for his Week 5 matchup against the Las Vegas Raiders. There is a lot to like, as the Bears put the Raiders on upset alert. Let’s take a look at why the young tight end could be a smart stash prior to Sunday’s kickoff.

Cole Kmet Fantasy Football Upside is High

First off, this is not me saying you need to start Cole Kmet this week. Hell, I’m the top-ranked FantasyPros expert at ranking tight ends this season, and you can see where I rank him prior to kickoff.

Still, this could be the time to buy-low on the young tight end or stash him at the end of your bench. With a 20% ownership rate across Sleeper fantasy football leagues, he is likely available to add.

Snap Share

If you have followed my work for a while, you know the phrase I often repeat is “opportunity leads to productivity.” Fantasy football is all about opportunity, and snaps are an easy way to measure that. Taking a look at the Week 4 snap counts, you may be surprised to see Cole Kmet has the second-largest offensive snap share in the entire league, playing 98.3% of snaps in last week’s win.

This is no fluke. Backing up Kmet is Jimmy Graham, and he isn’t a threat to anyone. Kmet is a much better blocker, he is more athletic and he can actually run. Look for Kmet to see a large snap share yet again on Sunday.

Matt Nagy’s Magical Stamp of Approval

Of course, everything head coach Matt Nagy says is essentially law in the city of Chicago. He is a genius, a football savant and he has long, beautiful locks atop his head. If you didn’t figure it out before the last one, I’m joking. Baldy is terrible.

However, Nagy is still the head coach. He is making decisions on some things, and he wants to see Cole Kmet more involved going forward. It makes sense since Kmet only has a 15% target share this season. He is a big, athletic target that would benefit Justin Fields to throw to.

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Matt Nagy said that the TE target rate is lower than he would like.
"I love tight ends," he said.

— Patrick Finley (@patrickfinley) October 8, 2021

Matchup With the Raiders

Finally, this is a solid matchup with the Las Vegas Raiders. On the season, the Raiders are surrendering the ninth-most PPR fantasy football points to tight ends. Last week, we saw both Donald Parham and Jared Cook catch touchdowns against them, with the latter leading his team with 70 receiving yards.

The week prior, Mike Gesicki of the Dolphins led his team with 86 receiving yards on 10 receptions.

Clearly, the Raiders can be attacked by the tight end position. The Cole Kmet fantasy outlook is very high since he will be that TE1 on the field for over 90% of the snaps.

Again, you may not want to start Kmet this week, and that’s understandable. However, he is a solid stash option, if you have room. He is also an interesting, cheap option for DFS lineups.