{"id":854704,"date":"2026-04-05T06:30:58","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T06:30:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/854704\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T06:30:58","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T06:30:58","slug":"why-tight-end-charlie-kolar-will-thrive-in-chargers-offense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/854704\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Tight End Charlie Kolar Will Thrive in Chargers Offense"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Kolar set career highs 10 catches for 142 yards and two touchdowns in 2025, so he isn&#8217;t going to blow you away with statistical numbers.<\/p>\n<p>But look beyond the box score and it&#8217;s clear that Kolar is going to bring a hard-nosed mentality to the locker room and on the field, something the Chargers needed as they implement McDaniel&#8217;s new system.<\/p>\n<p>For all the chatter about points and yards the Bolts could put up under McDaniel, keep in mind that the Chargers will still be molded in Harbaugh&#8217;s image as a gritty, tough team.<\/p>\n<p>McDaniel said as much in late January when he was asked about Harbaugh&#8217;s penchant for wanting to have a dominant ground game.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He likes to run the ball and I am, by trade, I spent a good portion of my career being in charge of the run game and being the run game coordinator,&#8221; McDaniel said. &#8220;I think you&#8217;re always playing to your skillsets and each team that you&#8217;re on has a different array of them.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think some of my run game prowess in the past has been different solutions for light boxes when you&#8217;re adept to pass, to run the ball,&#8221; McDaniel added. &#8220;That core foundational belief that football is inside out, prioritizing the line of scrimmage play and being able to win games when you have a lead with nine minutes to go in the game and you can keep the defense off the field. I think those types of things, that&#8217;s where the like-minded football 101, core values of football kind of overlap.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Kolar is the perfect player that fits the identity of what Harbaugh and McDaniel are looking for in Southern California.<\/p>\n<p>Because when January comes around, Kolar is exactly the type of player who can help you advance in the playoffs.<\/p>\n<p>View the <a class=\"nfl-o-cta--link nfl-o-cta--underline\" href=\"https:\/\/www.chargers.com\/news\/free-agency-tracker-2026\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Chargers 2026 Free Agency Tracker<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>View the Chargers <a class=\"nfl-o-cta--link nfl-o-cta--underline\" style=\"word-break: break-word\" href=\"https:\/\/www.chargers.com\/news\/2026-draft-picks-nfl\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">2026 Draft Picks<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>View the Chargers <a class=\"nfl-o-cta--link nfl-o-cta--underline\" style=\"word-break: break-word\" href=\"https:\/\/www.chargers.com\/news\/2026-opponents-home-away\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">2026 Opponents<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kolar set career highs 10 catches for 142 yards and two touchdowns in 2025, so he isn&#8217;t going&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":854705,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2064],"tags":[111620,98782,37,241,4699,116750,7,34,38,1014,262,2444,2443,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-854704","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-chargers","8":"tag-2026-free-agency-editorial","9":"tag-2026-offseason-editorial","10":"tag-app-homepage","11":"tag-chargers","12":"tag-charlie-kolar","13":"tag-charlie-kolar-fa-2026","14":"tag-football","15":"tag-homepage-cp","16":"tag-homepage-headlines","17":"tag-los-angeles","18":"tag-los-angeles-chargers","19":"tag-losangeles","20":"tag-losangeleschargers","21":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116350699720863755","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=854704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854704\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/854705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=854704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=854704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=854704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}