Inside the TE revolution — from someone living it
The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL
The Athletic
4.6 • 3.3K Ratings
🗓️ 5 June 2026
⏱️ 81 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Tight end Charlie Kolar caught 10 passes for 142 yards and two touchdowns last season. In the offseason, he signed a three-year deal with the Chargers that guaranteed him $17 million and put him inside the top-20 earners at the position based on annual average value. How does a guy who puts up in a season what Brock Bowers does in a good week end up as one of the most important players at the position? Allow him to bring you inside the tight end revolution on this episode of The Athletic Football Show.
Rundown
0:00 Welcome to the show
4:55 Why are TEs booming?
14:40 Rams impact
16:39 Seahawks impact
17:28 Bears next evolution?
23:03 Value of early downs
31:44 Importance of unpredictability
39:51 Charlie Kolar interview
Host: Robert Mays
Co-Host: Derrik Klassen
Executive Producer: Michael Beller
Senior Producer: Katy Duffy
Social Producer: Scott Krinch
Follow Robert on Bluesky: @robertmays.bsky.social
Follow Derrik on Bluesky: @qbklass.bsky.social
Follow Robert on X: @RobertMays
Theme song: Haunted
Written by Dylan Slocum, Trevor Dietrich, Ruben Duarte, Kyle McAulay, and Meredith VanWoert / Performed by Spanish Love Songs
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Athletic Football Show. |
| 0:02.0 | I'm Robert Mays. |
| 0:03.2 | Today, we're digging into the tight end revolution that has overtaken the league here |
| 0:08.0 | over the last year or so. |
| 0:10.0 | The entire offseason had moments where we realized how valuable tight ends were. |
| 0:14.0 | Guys like Charlie Kohler, who we're talking to a little bit later today, get $8 million |
| 0:17.1 | a year. |
| 0:18.0 | Darneau Washington gets $13 million a year as a guy who is primarily a blocking force for |
| 0:23.2 | the Steelers. |
| 0:24.1 | We saw seven kind of Y-ish tight ends drafted in a span of 40 picks on day two of the |
| 0:29.8 | draft this year. |
| 0:31.0 | There are a lot of different reasons for this. |
| 0:32.5 | Teams are chasing what the Rams did out of 13 personnel. |
| 0:35.5 | I think that overall we've seen an uptick of multi-tight-end sets across the league. |
| 0:40.3 | Derek and I spent a lot of time at the beginning of this show |
| 0:43.4 | talking about what has led to this moment, what's fueling it, |
| 0:46.8 | and maybe what the next stage of it ends up looking like. |
| 0:49.8 | But I didn't want to just have a conversation with Derek or Dave |
| 0:52.7 | or the same group that does the show consistently. |
| 0:54.8 | I wanted to talk to somebody who actually is going through this, is actually a part of what |
| 1:00.5 | this tight end moment in the league has been over the last year or so. |
| 1:04.4 | And that's why we wanted to talk to Charlie. |
... |
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