Bears tight end Cole Kmet put his right arm strongly around coach Ben Johnson as they walked through the tunnel at Soldier Field.

It was time to celebrate, to go wild.

The unbelievable had just happened. 

The winds of change swept through Soldier Field and finally took the Green Bay Packers out with them. 

The Bears had just knocked off their hated rivals 31-27 in the most memorable of ways – a touchdown pass from quarterback Caleb Williams to receiver DJ Moore with 1 minute, 43 seconds remaining – in the wild-card round of the playoffs.

Kmet shook Johnson – the coach who brashly and confidently reinvigorated the franchise and its fanbase with his “Good, better, best” energy and know-how – so hard and so passionately that he lost his hat. 

Johnson embraced Kmet, even slapping his playsheet – the physical manifestation of Johnson’s feared offensive prowess – twice across his tight end’s chest, across his No. 85.

It was a special moment between a beloved player and beloved coach caught by a broadcast camera coming out of the biggest, most important Bears game in years.

Later in the locker room with the Bears’ celebration at its peak, Johnson barked out “Man, Fuck the Packers!” The rivalry was viscerally real again. 

“This one meant something to us,” Johnson said afterward.

That’s to the locker room, to the McCaskey family and to Chicago. 

No one understood the emotions of that better than Kmet, the Chicago area native who played at St. Viator High School before heading to Notre Dame. He wears No. 85 for a reason. Kmet endured the end days of Matt Nagy and all of the days of Matt Eberflus before finally experiencing and enjoying the turnaround under Ben Johnson.

And now one of the Bears’ best players in Kmet is out for the rest of the season when his team has clearly become one of the best in the NFL. 

It’s one of the harshest, most inescapable realities of football. Players get hurt often – and often at the worst times. 

The team placed Kmet – the longest-tenured player on the roster who was drafted with the 43rd pick in 2020 – on injured reserve on Friday afternoon with a right knee injury. 

It’s awful. You’re allowed to hate it and feel for Kmet. 

The Bears certainly do. 

“He’s one of my favorites for a number of reasons,” Johnson said. “I still remember him at the combine coming out and how much I loved him in that slight interaction we had there. To be able to be in the same room with him for the last year and a half, I’ve got so much respect for the player that he is, but also the person, the leader. He’s everything we want to be about here. He’s one of the glue guys. He’s one of the guys that I can count on, whether it’s a messaging standpoint or getting the pulse of the team. He’s going to be sorely missed. 

“Really, he’s Chicago. He’s been here his whole life and he’s a big part of our heartbeat. So, it stinks; it does. I hate it for him, I hate it for his teammates as well. And yet the train keeps rolling along. Someone else has to step up. Fortunately, we talked about this last week, just our practice squad, the way they’ve been developing, the way they’ve been working, I think we got some good options here on this roster. So, yeah, we’re going to miss him.”

An increased workload is expected for Sam Roush, a third-round pick this year. Veteran Stephen Carlson and Qadir Ismail are options on the practice squad. Hayden Large, an undrafted rookie, could also be one later as he continues to recover from a core muscle injury on IR.

What the Bears want to do offensively won’t change without Kmet. Johnson still has Colston Loveland to count on. Johnson also said that it’s possible that the Bears’ “jumbo” package returns with Ozzy Trapilo at left tackle and Theo Benedet at tight end. 

“There’s a lot of solutions out there to make sure that we can still run the ball, pass protect, and our route-running, I think we’re going to be OK,” Johnson said. “(But) I’m not discounting the impact that a guy like Cole has.”

His performance mattered on the field – and his intangibles still do off it. 

“He’s one of the glue guys, a huge amount of dependability, from the coaching staff to his teammates,” Johnson continued. “We knew what we were going to get from that player every time he took the field. He was consistently one of the highest-graded players on our offense week in and week out. He will be missed. There’s no question about it.”

Kmet was injured on a play doing what he was supposed to do. He released after a block as an option for Williams on second-and-9 from the Bears’ own 10 halfway through the fourth quarter against the New England Patriots. 

He had no plans to go out of bounds because the Bears had plans of maintaining control, draining the clock and winning another game. As Kmet braced for contact, his right knee appeared to give out on him. 

The first sign that Kmet’s injury was serious was that he went backward on impact. That doesn’t happen to him. He imposes his will. 

Kmet then immediately grabbed his right knee. Those close on the sideline heard him scream in profuse pain. 

A cart came out quickly for Kmet as some of his teammates took knees, their concern for him visibly apparent. The Bears engulfed the cart in their support and wished Kmet well before he left the field. Patriots safety Kevin Byard III, a teammate the last two seasons, ran over and tapped Kmet on the shoulder pads, too. 

It sucks.  

Again, you’re allowed to hate it. He deserves to be a part of what’s ahead for the Bears.

But the game resumed.  They always do – and they always will. 

The Seattle Seahawks, the defending Super Bowl champions, are next on the schedule for the Bears. It will get the full Monday Night Football treatment. Kmet and his injury will surely be discussed but whatever Joe Buck and Troy Aikman say will fail to fully encapsulate his importance in the locker room. 

The Bears’ best players can’t even do it. 

“I don’t have the words to describe what Cole is to me, what Cole is to this team, this organization,” Williams said after the Bears’ 30-24 win on Thursday night. “He’s the longest-tenured Bear, I believe. And so, he’s been through it. And it’s challenging. It’s tough. And I’ll be with him. I’ll be right there with him through every step of whatever the injury is. Cole’s been there for me every step of the way – through the first year, the second year and now through this year. So I can only do the same for him.”

The Bears are a lesser team without Kmet but they’re still a darn good one. 

A deep postseason run still remains the team’s goal. 

And if those wins do come, there will surely be Kmet to greet his teammates – and his head coach – in the tunnel to celebrate, with his big right arm, the one that carried the football when he was injured, ready for another strong embrace.