Max Klare

Max Klare — TE, LAR — 2026

Scoring note: This eval uses half PPR (0.5/rec), 6pt pass TD, no TE premium per methodology/league-settings.md, which shows these values confirmed 2026-07-08. (The evaluation request assumed the file still held full-PPR placeholders; the file supersedes. At Klare's projection size the full-vs-half-PPR difference is ~5 season points and changes nothing.) No TE premium + 1 TE slot = punt-tier is the default posture per te.md §7 — and Klare doesn't even clear the punt-tier bar.

Verdict

AVOID (2026 redraft), high confidence. Klare is a real prospect — R2 #61 capital, back-to-back All-Big Ten seasons, a genuine receiving-F skill set — buried at TE4/5 in the NFL's deepest tight end room, behind Colby Parkinson, Tyler Higbee, Terrance Ferguson, and alongside Davis Allen, on a team that spread 150 TE targets across four players in 2025 with nobody topping a 9.6% target share (nflverse, pulled 2026-07-07). Beat and industry consensus calls 2026 a redshirt year (CBS Sports outlook; Draft Sharks "Overcrowded TE Room," fetched 2026-07-08). The projected route participation fails the te.md §2 RP gate (<55%) by a mile, which ends the eval at AVOID territory regardless of talent — and unlike a clean handcuff, he has no live contingent path: one injury in this room promotes two or three other TEs before a route ever reaches him. Why-the-market-is-wrong line: the market prices him correctly at zero — this verdict exists to disarm the pedigree bait (R2 capital + Ohio State + McVay's 30% 13-personnel rate makes him look like a free dart); the capital is a 2027–28 year-2/3 breakout signal (prospect-pedigree.md §1, te.md §9), not a 2026 one, and in a 6-bench redraft league the roster spot is strictly better spent on a TE with an actual route path — including his own teammate Ferguson.

Projection & comps

Bottom-up (half PPR): LAR ≈ 595 pass attempts (35/gm × 17 — team profile, 2026-07-07). TE room aggregate ≈ 25% target share ≈ 150 targets, now split five ways. Klare as TE4/5 with a developmental role:

TDs anchored to xTD logic, not room history: Parkinson's 8 TDs on 56 targets in 2025 is exactly the small-sample TD spike te.md §10 warns about — the room's TD pool regresses and splits five ways. Games-played risk: low (healthy; the risk is routes, not availability).

Comps (rookie seasons: day-2-ish receiving TE buried behind vets): Terrance Ferguson 2025 LAR (25 tgt, 11-231-3 — the same team, same round, one year earlier: that's Klare's *ceiling*, and it scored ~47 half-PPR pts); Michael Mayer 2023 LV (27-304-2); Jake Ferguson 2022 DAL (19-174-2); Ben Sinnott 2024 WAS (5 rec — the floor); Colby Parkinson 2020 SEA (3 rec).

Usage profile (te.md §2 table)

No NFL sample — rookie. Projected values from role; college/pedigree fills the priors row. RP gate: FAIL → eval shortened per te.md §2.

Pedigree (weighted up — thin NFL sample, prospect-pedigree.md): R2 #61 (2026) — the classic TE year-3 breakout capital band. College production clears the te.md §9 screen: led Purdue in receiving 2024 (51-685-4, Third-Team All-Big Ten), then 43-448-2 at Ohio State 2025 (3rd on team in receptions, most by an OSU TE since 1983, First-Team All-Big Ten; therams.com draft announcement + Eleven Warriors, fetched 2026-07-08). Age 22 (b. 2003-07-08 — Sleeper, 2026-07-07), NFL year 1 — three years before the TE positional peak window (25–29). Athletic testing: UNVERIFIED — opted out of combine drills; no official pro-day numbers surfaced (CBS combine coverage; PFF pro-day tracker, fetched 2026-07-08); scouting estimates ~4.70 forty (projection, not a measurement). No RAS ≥8.0 confirmation — per te.md §9 that caps the long-term pay-up-tier ceiling until proven; his separation is charted as route-precision, not explosion (TE Zone, 2026-03-21).

Context (team profile, 2026-07-07)

Elite, maximally stable offense that is structurally hostile to a fifth TE: McVay year 10, Stafford (reigning MVP) back on a 1-yr/$55M extension, 11.5 win total, +3-to-+6 PROE, 32.7% PA rate, 30.2% 13-personnel — huge aggregate TE snaps but split across a room the team deliberately keeps five deep (SI 53-man projection, 2026-06-12: all five TEs make the roster). Vacated targets ≈ 15 — effectively zero. Hierarchy: Nacua (28.6% TS) → Adams → Kyren → the TE room. Ahead of Klare: Parkinson (TE1, 56 tgt/8 TD), Higbee (re-signed 2 yrs through 2027), Ferguson (2025 R2, the seam threat and the room's year-2 leap candidate), Allen (33 tgt; local beat floats *him*, not Klare, as the sleeper — ClutchPoints via search, 2026-07-08). The two TEs from te.md §6's warning — "two TEs from one team are almost never both rosterable" — this room has *five*. Klare is the one with no 2026 claim.

Scarcity-tier placement (te.md §7)

Below the punt tier — off the draft board entirely. Punt tier requires "one elite trait or a role bet"; Klare has traits but zero role, and his PPG edge vs the streamer baseline is ~0 (negative after the roster spot's opportunity cost). No TE premium in this league (confirmed 2026-07-08), so there is no scoring quirk to rescue deep TE darts. If you want a free LAR TE lottery ticket, the room's route-path candidates are Ferguson (year-2 leap screen) or Parkinson (incumbent TE1) — not Klare. Not a pay-up asset, not a dead-zone trap, not a punt value: a watchlist name.

Tripwires (void this eval and re-run)

• Parkinson or Higbee traded/cut/long-term-injured before Week 1 *and* camp reports Klare — not Allen — absorbing the 2-TE reps with the 1s.
• Camp/preseason depth chart lists Klare ahead of Ferguson or Allen, or preseason charting shows him detached (slot/wide) with the starters.
• In-season route share ≥40% in any 3-week stretch — the year-2/3 screen arming a year early; move him from watchlist to waiver claim immediately.
• Any real ADP forms (inside TE30 on FFC/Underdog) — someone is drafting the name; verdict stands but the eval should be re-checked for news that caused it.
• League converts to TE-premium or dynasty format — the price math changes (his stash value is format-dependent, per te.md §7).