I don’t want to imagine a Bears future that doesn’t include Cole Kmet.

Yet the fine folks at ESPN put all of us up to it on Wednesday with a hypothetical trades article that listed potential teams and returns for our hometown tight end.

The landing spots included the Panthers, Ravens, Chiefs and Dolphins.

The returns ranged from a 2028 third-round pick (a not-terrible consolation prize) to simply upgrading a 2027 fifth to a 2027 third (not enough mehs in the world).

Courtney Cronin played the role of arbitrator in the exercise and didn’t think any of the four trades would pass Brad Muster with the Bears front office.

Bears Twitter reacted to the fake trades as you would expect.

Still, the rest of the NFL world seems hell bent on moving Kmet out of town and maybe that makes sense with their 30,000-foot view.

The Bears, after all, spent the 11th pick in the 2025 draft on Colston Loveland, a special talent who should be occupying a locker at Halas Hall for the next decade.

Then they spent a third-round pick in this year’s draft on Sam Roush.

That view conveniently ignores a trio of facts:

Kmet’s cap hit will increase to $15.425 million in 2027 and so this exercise would make more sense a year from now for a team in desperate need of a capable tight end.

Again, I’m not ready for that.

And I’ll fully admit that I can’t be rational when it comes to Kmet.

Not when he’s been a local product who’s done everything his hometown team has asked of him and turned in some of the best highlights of the last decade (or ever, in the case of the catch in the Rams game).

And certainly not after getting the chance to work with him at CHGO and getting to know him as a genuinely good dude.

If the Bears can actually climb the mountain and win another Lombardi Trophy, it’d be that much better with #85 helping write the story.

I know, I know.

Building a consistent winner and Super Bowl contender means making tough decisions and saying goodbye a year too early instead of a year too late. Operating with your head instead of your heart is part of the reason DJ Moore will be wearing a Buffalo Bills helmet in 2026.

But with Kmet, it’s my hope that both player and team can figure out a way to reach the storybook ending together whether it’s a smart extension after this year or just going ahead and winning the whole damn thing in 2026.

No other outcome would seem right, would it?

I feel bad for the NFC North, but Caleb to Colston is tremendous content.

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