Recruitment
Klare’s recruitment profile, courtesy of 247 Sports.
Klare was born in Indiana but played high school ball at St. Xavier in Cincinnati, where he also played baseball. As a senior, he had 39 catches for 637 yards and five touchdowns. He was a three-star recruit in the class of 2022.
He received offers from several Power Five schools, but his choice ultimately came down to Purdue or Duke. Klare chose the Boilermakers and enrolled at West Lafayette that summer. His brother Luke, also a tight end, joined Purdue before the 2024 season.
Collegiate career
Klare’s collegiate statistics courtesy of Sports reference.
Klare’s first few seasons on campus were uneventful. He redshirted his first season before an ankle injury knocked him out of the 2023 season after just five games. In those five games, he caught 22 passes for 196 yards. He set his career mark for receptions that season with eight for 64 yards against Virginia Tech in his second full game.
2024 was a terrible season for the Purdue Boilermakers, but Klare was a lone bright spot on offense. He led the team in receptions (51), receiving yards (685) and receiving touchdowns (4) en route to a 1-11 season. His best game of the season was an overtime loss to Illinois, where he caught six passes for 133 yards, a career-high and one of only two 100-yard games in his college career. He also took advantage of a two-point conversion in the loss. After the season, he entered the transfer portal, where he was rated as the number one available player at his position.
A few weeks after entering the portal, he committed to play football for Ryan Day at Ohio State for the 2025 season. He went from being the top target in Purdue’s offense to a loaded group of pass catchers in Columbus. Therefore, his production took a hit, as he caught just 43 passes for 448 yards and two touchdowns. He was third on the team in receptions and yards, behind Jeremiah Smith and Carnell Tate. When the games mattered most this season, he was nowhere to be seen. He went just 2-28 in the Conference Championship loss to Indiana, and then was held without a catch (for the first time since his very first college game) in the Playoff Quarterfinal loss to Miami. He opted to forgo his senior season and declared for the NFL Draft.
Strengths
- Fluid route runner with impressive release
- Size and speed are threats down the seam
- Sufficient dimensions with a length of 1.80 meters and a weight of 243 kg (mentioned)
- Explosivity in the field after the catch
- Isn’t fast, but builds momentum in space
- Versatility to play all over the field
- Led Purdue’s offense as the only threat on the field as a sophomore
Weaknesses
- Gone in postseason play
- In-line blocking needs improvement
- Declines were mainly a problem in 2024 (five drops, 8.9 decline%)
Concept value
Mock Draft history for Klare, courtesy of Mock Draft Database.
It seems like Klare is a great fit for a tight end on day two, unless someone decides tight end is their biggest need at the end of day one and reaches for him. According to Mock Draft Database, he will go early in the third round, but there are some balks that push him into the late first round. Most of those spots came from very early this season, before Klare’s production took a step back at OSU. The Chiefs or Eagles are two teams that need some youth at the tight end position and could consider targeting Klare.
Dynasty prospects
Klare is the TE2 in the DLF Consensus Expert Rookie Rankings, leaving the board at 19th overall. He moves 13 spots behind Sadiq and one spot above Eli Stowers, the Vanderbilt tight end who appears to be competing with Klare for the TE2 spot. Right now, three of the four rankings have Klare over Stowers, but it’s still very early in the process. This position is highly dependent on the landing site and the draft capital, which of course we will only know in the spring.
Klare has a chance to be an all-around tight end in the NFL and a receiving threat in the fantasy game. However, I believe he needs to improve as a blocker to reach that position, so we’ll have to see how he does there. He could find himself in a bit of a rotation with a tight end who is a stronger blocker (think Dalton Schultz and Dawson Knox in Buffalo). His stock has apparently fallen a bit due to a lack of production at Ohio State, but his numbers at Purdue more than make up for it in my eyes. He was asked to take a different role at Ohio State, and they already had two of the best wide receivers in college football. Naturally, he would take a back seat in the target’s pecking order. Depending on where and when he is selected, he could be an early second-round pick in rookie drafts.
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