Fantasy Football Fallout: Life After Cole Kmet in Chicago

Cole Kmet is out for the season with a right knee injury suffered in Thursday night's win over New England. He goes to injured reserve, and his fantasy season is over. If you rostered him, he is a drop in redraft leagues once you have a replacement secured, because there is no stash value in a season-ending injury.

The first move is to check the Chicago depth chart and the wire together on the fantasy football page, because the Bears will lean on their backup tight ends and the middle of the field does not disappear from the game plan. Chicago is 5-2 and still a real offense, so the tight end targets do not vanish. They move to the next man up and to the receivers underneath.

The smart play is not to chase the backup tight end with your top waiver priority unless your league is deep. Stream the position week to week, take the best matchup on the board, and spend your priority on a player who touches the ball 15 times a game. Tight end streaming is a weekly decision, not a season-long marriage.

Caleb Williams loses a safety valve in the middle of the field, and that matters most in the red zone. Expect more work for the receivers underneath and more checkdowns to the backs. Do not panic on Williams. Do adjust your expectations for Chicago's red-zone efficiency until the new tight end rotation proves it can hold up.

The call: drop Kmet in redraft once a replacement is rostered, stream tight end by matchup, and do not burn a top waiver claim on a backup. This is a hole to manage, not a season to abandon.