Bears $50 million cut candidate could draw interest from Giants, Vikings and Browns,

The Chicago Bears have some cut candidates this offseason, with tight end Cole Kmet being on that list.

After posting a career year with 719 receiving yards and six scores in 2023, Kmet has been unable to recreate that success in two years catching passes from Caleb Williams, with Kmet tallying 821 receiving yards in that span.

While many have pegged linebacker Tremaine Edmunds as the Bears' top cut candidate, NBC Sports' Kyle Dvorchak disagrees.

Instead, he labels Kmet as the Bears' top cut candidate:

"Colston Loveland is the future of this team, but he’s also the present. Despite a slow start to the year, Loveland led the Bears in receiving yards during the regular season and ran laps around the rest of the pass-catchers in the postseason. Kmet caught more than three passes in a game once this year," Dvorchak wrote.

With Colston Loveland emerging last season, and with the Bears needing to open up cap space (Chicago is $4.1 million over the cap currently) to improve their roster, Chicago might view Kmet as expendable.

Kmet has two more years left on his $50 million deal, but cutting him would save the Bears $8.4 million while incurring a dead-cap charge of $3.2 million. That's significant enough that Chicago will at least considering cutting him, and we believe the team will.

Kmet has proven to be a plus pass-catcher and solid blocker, so he's sure to draw interest if he hits the open market. Three squads that could have interest are the New York Giants, Minnesota Vikings and Cleveland Browns.

The Giants and Browns have Daniel Bellinger and David Njoku as pending free agents, and the latter has already said he doesn't plan on returning to Cleveland.

Kmet would be just what the doctor ordered for those teams to complement their young tight ends in Theo Johnson in New York and Harold Fannin in Cleveland.

Also, the play-callers of both teams, Giants offensive coordinator Matt Nagy and Browns head coach Todd Monken, were part of offenses last season that ranked among the top 11 in 12-personnel usage in 2025, per Sumer Sports, so adding another reliable tight end makes even more sense.

As for the Vikings, one of their top cut candidates this offseason is T.J. Hockenson. If Minnesota takes that route and Kmet hits the open market and proves to be cheaper, we could see the Vikings take a swing on him as a replacement.

Assuming the Vikings cut Hockenson, Kmet will likely be most interested in going there, as Minnesota would give him a clear path to a ton of snaps on offense and a chance to win.

The Giants are probably the second-best bet for Kmet given the fact that the veteran has a better chance to supplant Johnson than Fannin and New York should be more competitive than Cleveland.

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