Cole Kmet's Knee Injury Opens the Door for Colston Loveland

The Bears walked out of New England with a 30-24 win, but it cost them their longest-tenured player. Tight end Cole Kmet was carted off in the fourth quarter after a knee injury, grabbing at his right knee immediately after taking a hit from Robert Spillane and Christian Gonzalez. Chicago fears the worst — a likely season-ending injury, with a trip to injured reserve expected.

Kmet's 2026 line was already modest: 10 catches for 87 yards and one touchdown across seven games, good for just 25 PPR points and a TE42 ranking (#268 overall) in our model. He wasn't a fantasy centerpiece anymore. But his absence still matters, because of who inherits the volume behind him.

What Happened

Kmet caught a Caleb Williams pass in the right flat, turned upfield, and went down hard. He's a former No. 43 overall pick out of Notre Dame and one of the locker room's steadying voices. Williams, visibly shaken afterward, said he doesn't have the words for what Kmet means to him and the organization, and promised to be there through every step of the recovery.

That's the human side. The roster side is simpler: the TE2 role just became the TE1 role, and the player stepping into it is already trending the right way.

The Loveland Breakout

Colston Loveland was the real story in New England even before Kmet went down. The rookie saw a season-high 12 targets, hauling in seven for 69 yards and a touchdown. That's back-to-back games finding the end zone after he failed to score through the first five weeks of the season.

Loveland now sits at TE10 (#102 overall) in our rankings, with 26 catches for 244 yards and two scores through seven games in 2026 — 62 PPR points. His form arrow is pointing up too: over his last five games he's averaging 3.3 fantasy points above his season mark. Remove Kmet from the target competition and that trajectory only steepens.

The Bears' only other tight end on the active roster is rookie Sam Roush, a third-round pick out of Stanford with three catches for 33 yards this season. He was scouted as a blocking tight end, so he's a depth piece, not a fantasy factor. Chicago also has Qadir Ismail and Stephen Carlson on the practice squad.

The Fantasy Fallout

The clear winner is Loveland. With Williams spreading it around — the QB has 1,020 passing yards and five touchdowns in just four games, ranking as our QB5 — there's enough volume here to support a weekly TE1. If Loveland is somehow still on your waiver wire, that ends today.

Kmet managers can cut bait without a second thought; a likely-IR tight end who was already a low-end TE2 has no startable path left this season. Roush is a deep-league-only dart throw who won't move the needle in standard formats.

Bottom line: add Colston Loveland everywhere he's available. The Bears host a tougher test next with a Monday night trip to Seattle on Nov. 2, but target share like he just saw travels well. Treat him as a confident streaming-plus start the rest of the way.