Rams 2nd round pick, Max Klare, TE

Sean McVay and the Los Angeles Rams landed another awesome receiving prospect – TE Max Klare

Klare and Terrance Ferguson are very different. Their success does not feel mutually exclusive.

Klare feels similar to Sam LaPorta. He can win routes and create with the ball in hand.… https://t.co/2vPiHswuOO

— Jacob Gibbs (@jagibbs_23) April 25, 2026

from https://www.nfldraftbuzz.com/Player/Max-Klare-TE-Purdue

Scouting Report: Strengths

Loose, fluid athlete who can run the full route tree and bends with ease at the top of his stems to create natural separation from linebackers and safeties alike.

Genuine vertical threat with the speed to climb past second-level defenders on seam routes. He burned safeties at Purdue on those 62-yard and 32-yard chunk plays that changed games.

Excellent production on intermediate and deep targets throughout his career, consistently winning at the catch point and delivering reliable yardage on throws beyond ten yards.

Attacks the ball after the catch with real intent. He turns upfield quickly, reduces angles on pursuing defenders, and fights through arm tackles to squeeze out extra yards.

Reads zone coverage well and has a feel for settling into soft spots rather than drifting through them. Quarterbacks trust where he will be, and he rewards that trust consistently.

Versatile alignment piece who lined up roughly evenly from in-line, slot, and wide positions at Ohio State, giving coordinators a moveable chess piece to exploit matchup advantages.

Showed legitimate growth as a run blocker at Ohio State compared to his Purdue tape. He became more willing to fit up at the point of attack and improved noticeably when blocking on the move.

Multi-sport background and former quarterback experience give him a natural feel for timing, spatial awareness, and how defensive structures try to take away throwing windows.

Scouting Report: Weaknesses

Blocking remains the clear question mark. His hand placement is inconsistent, he gets grabby at the point of attack, and he lacks the anchor strength to sustain against NFL-caliber edge defenders.

Light for the position at 246 pounds with a frame that sits below average among tight end prospects. He will need to add functional mass without sacrificing the athleticism that makes him dangerous.

Ball skills are uneven. He had a noticeable drop issue at Purdue and while the rate improved at Ohio State, he still fights certain throws rather than plucking them cleanly out of the air.

Production and efficiency took a step backward at Ohio State. His yards per route run, average depth of target, and receiving grade all declined, and he failed to stand out at the NFL Combine, where he chose not to run or jump and looked average in pass-catching drills.

Durability is worth monitoring. The 2023 ankle injury cost him most of that season, and his relatively light frame raises questions about how he will hold up absorbing contact from NFL defenders over a full 17-game schedule.

Scouting Report: Summary

Klare is a pass-catching tight end first, and his NFL value will be defined by how quickly an offense can get creative with his alignments. When you watch his Purdue tape from 2024, the picture is clear: this is a guy who can threaten vertically, win on intermediate crossers, and make defenders pay when they guess wrong in zone coverage. His feel for route stems and leverage manipulation is advanced for a college tight end, and his ability to line up from multiple spots gives offensive coordinators real flexibility. The move to Ohio State did not showcase him the same way, but anyone who watched both years of tape understands the production dip had more to do with target share and scheme than regression as a player.

The blocking is the thing that keeps you up at night. At his current weight and with his current technique, he is a liability on early downs when the offense needs to run the ball behind the tight end. He improved during his year in Columbus, no question, and he showed more willingness to get after it in the run game than he ever did in West Lafayette. But “improved” and “ready” are not the same thing. NFL defensive ends will eat him alive if he cannot add 15 pounds of good weight and learn to strike with his hands inside the frame instead of reaching and grabbing. The pass protection numbers were not alarming, but the run blocking tape still makes you wince on too many reps.

The NFL is starving for tight ends who can stress defenses in the passing game from multiple alignments, and Klare fits that mold. His best landing spot is an offense that will deploy him as a big slot or flex piece early in his career while he develops the blocking chops to become an every-down contributor. He is not a finished product, and the combine did nothing to quiet concerns about his overall athletic ceiling in a deep tight end class. But the route-running instincts, the production history, and the positional versatility give him a real floor as a move tight end who can contribute as a receiver from Day 1. The ceiling depends entirely on what happens in the weight room and the blocking sled over the next two years.

Zooey wrote:

I wondered about that because my impression is that blocking is mostly leverage and angles i.e. technique. Why can’t he improve there?

We posted at practically the same time. I posted a report on Klare that is quite detailed, and it specifies his blocking issues. It’s right before your post.

But! I gather that his issues are as an inline blocker, not as a move blocker. If you’re using 2 and 3 TE sets, he doesn’t have to be the inline blocking TE (not early on in his career anyway). His great advantage right now is that he runs all routes you would expect from either a WR or TE while very clearly projecting the abilities you want from a receiving TE in the NFL, ie. being a mismatch who’s faster than linebackers and bigger than DBs.