Bears tight end Cole Kmet showed off a new skill on Sunday.
Long snapper Scott Daly was ruled out with a knee injury early in the game and Kmet took over snapping duties for the rest of the team’s 35-16 win over the Jaguars in London. Kmet said after the game that his first reaction to learning of Daly’s injury was “oh shit” because his “biggest nightmare came true.”
It was something Kmet was prepared for, though. He snaps a little bit at practice each week and picked up the skill in high school in order to make himself a more valuable member of the team.
“I remember my dad, me and my brother would be messing around doing it in the backyard all the time, and it was just kind of a more-you-can-do thing, thinking if you ever needed to make a team, if you’re a guy that’s the 54 or 55 guy and they’re deciding between two guys, having that ability is going to keep you on the roster for those type of things,” Kmet said, via Courtney Cronin of ESPN.com. “Obviously I’m not in that position right now, but that was kind of the mindset of learning how to do it and I wanted to play in the NFL one day and that was kind of the thing behind it. It paid off today, I guess. I was glad I could just help out where I could.”
Kmet snapped on all five of the Bears’ extra points, including two that came after his own touchdowns.
The Bears will find another long snapper for next week if Daly can’t go, but they’ll feel good knowing that Kmet can handle things if needed.
