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Tight end Charlie Kolar spent the first four years of his NFL career with the Baltimore Ravens.
On March 10, he agreed to terms on a contract to join the Los Angeles Chargers.
When asked why he signed with the Chargers, the Iowa State product said, “The vision they had for me, and also, let’s call a spade a spade, the financial side was cool too.”
Kolar said the quiet part out loud
All these press conferences we see in the spring after players sign with a new club, or re-sign with their current club, are loaded with the player offering platitudes about the team they are signing with, like, “I like the culture they are building,” but honestly the majority of decisions made by free agents picking clubs is about money.
And who can blame them for this thinking?
NFL careers are an average of 3-4 years, so you gotta cash in while you can.
Kolar signed a 3-year deal with the Chargers for $24.3 million, with $17 million guaranteed.
While that might not sound like a monster deal to some, it is for a blocking tight end. Kolar has 30 receptions in four years.
To put $17 million guaranteed in the bank as a blocking tight end – not bad.
The point here is simple. Players generally sign where they get the best offer, and it was nice for a player to finally admit that publicly.
Garrett Wilson and Breece Hall got big money deals from the Jets – Wilson last year and Hall this year.
And after they signed, they said nice things about the Jets, and that is fine. That is what they should do.
But they most likely agreed to new long-term deals with the team because the life-changing money was too good to turn down.
Wilson got $90 million guaranteed, and Hall got $29 million guaranteed. That is “set for life” kind of money if you manage your finances well, and both guys are smart cats, so I’m sure they will.
You gotta strike while the iron is hot.
Neither player was a street free agent. They were still both contractually under team control when they agreed to extensions.
So why not make the best of the situation and set up your family for life, even if the losing is getting to you?
It’s like when Myles Garrett agreed to a deal in Cleveland for $40 million a year last year, even though he seemed at his wits’ end with the team’s struggles.
The NFL is a business.
Remember, Rich Cimini and Ian Rapoport both announced late in the 2024 season that if Aaron Rodgers returned as QB, the WR would likely want out.
Wilson had career-high 101 catches playing with Rodgers. Why would he want out? Perhaps he preferred playing with his college QB, Justin Fields, who knows. But these reports were illustrative of an unhappy player.
But whether that rumor was true or not, as somebody who attended myriad post-game press conferences by Wilson and Hall after tough Jets losses, their body language often exuded in these pressers – “I want out.”
They were basically out of answers in these post-games after losses on how to fix things, much like Quinnen Williams and Sauce Gardner, who were both traded last season.
So, in reading the tea leaves. Wilson and Hall took the money because the NFL is a business.
It probably wasn’t about much else.
But with all this being said, I think the Jets hiring Frank Reich to run the offense is going to be great for both these players and increase their happiness on the field.
The Jets had a lot of new additions this offseason in free agency and the draft, but you could argue the hiring of Reich might be the most important signing of them all.
He is one of those play-callers who is very good with play-squencing (chess on grass) and manufacturing production for his QB with QB-friendly play-calling.
Some play-callers just call plays from their play-sheet – not much rhyme or reason to what they are doing. Others play chess. Reich is a chess player.
Not putting Geno Smith in Canton, but with Reich dialing up the plays, spreading the ball around to the Jets’ slew of playmakers, the QB can do a solid job as a point guard.
But as we sit right now, I would say Kolar’s quote is the best way to explain why Wilson and Hall jumped at the Jets’ generous offers despite the team’s futility in recent years – “The financial side was cool.”
May 18, 2026
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