Please don’t out me to my friends, guys. Just please don’t do it. I’m a Titans fan, I promise. But, even I, a notorious hater, have to respect the big brains on the Indianapolis Colts for going with Penn State tight end Tyler Warren in the first round. Throughout the draft cycle, I compared Warren to Kyle Juszczyk. I know, I know….weird. Walk with me for a second. Sure, Juszczyk is a fullback, and while he’s wildly popular among 49ers fans, casual fans don’t really see the true impact he has on that 49ers offense. A lot of that offense quietly runs through Juszczyk when he’s on the field. Warren is similar in that regard. The Penn State offense, specifically the passing game, could be brutal to get through at times. That meant Warren’s impact was sort of shrouded in a way. On the surface, I don’t think it was clear what a critical cog he was in that machine. Last week, a video hit Twitter in which the Colts personnel people were breaking down the pick a bit, and it made me love it for Colts fans even more.
"Guys who do rare things in games… I just think they are showing you a preview of their greatness"
— Josh Norris (@JoshNorris) May 2, 2025
Colts Senior Player Personnel Scout Todd Vasvari compared Tyler Warren's 17 catch game vs USC to Edgerrin James' 299 yards vs UCLA and Torry Holt's 5 TD performance pic.twitter.com/oZ0aqeRYM9
First of all, I love it when my takes line up with the NFL’s. I had Warren’s game against USC listed on my “favorite tape of the 2025 cycle” list, so to hear NFL personnel people bring that up in support of drafting a prospect makes me feel big-brained.
I heard Coach Mac say something on 104.5 The Zone last week when they were breaking down divisional rivals that I hadn’t really thought of before. With a tight end like this, you can align in multiple ways and it makes it hard for the defense to determine whether the offense is in 11 personnel, 12 personnel, or what. Warren is that dude. By his very alignment alone, he can cloud whether a run or pass is coming. That’s a valuable trait for a tight end, and there aren’t too many guys that check that box.
He made for a pretty clean and easy eval this draft cycle. I know he has his detractors in the draft community, but he was pretty safely TE1 in this class, and a top 10 overall prospect. I still don’t know what you call the Wildcat when it’s directly snapped to a tight end, but I don’t care anymore. Warren made what was otherwise a rather boring offense fun to watch, and that’s where things start with him – it’s his utility. You can use this guy in so many different ways. I already mentioned the tight end Wildcat, Penn State motioned him from outside under center for a QB(TE) sneak, they motion him into the back field, he’s out wide as an X receiver, they throw screens to him, and I’m sure I’m missing more. The guy is a weapon who can do it all.
He’s a smooth and tough strider, almost accelerating into contact, and showing good concentration at the catch point in a tight window. He has an underrated jump cut that adds an element of elusiveness to his game. He’s a natural hands catcher with the length and hands to go up and high point balls that may sail high. And, he’s a hammer as an inline blocker, throwing blocks like an offensive lineman with good hat placement and inside hands. He’s relentless in that area of the game – looking for work and driving his feet. He doesn’t stop until the echo of the whistle.
I’d like to see him in an offense that didn’t have him blocking on 90% of his plays (that’s me being a smartass – not an actual statistic). He just looks crisp out there. He has a pretty good stutter step for a guy of his size and frame. He has good adjustment ability when the ball looks like it should be outside of his catch radius. I think his blocking in space can be a little wonky – he can whiff coming across the formation to pick up an end man at the line of scrimmage and he occasionally gets washed out of a block when the play requires lateral movement as opposed to vertical displacement. He can run a little high sometimes, too. But, I truly had very few bad notes on Warren. I’ll be curious to see how the Colts deploy him this season, and will have my popcorn ready for every game except those two against the Titans. Again, please don’t out me to my homies for being interested in how a divisional rival uses a good prospect.
Stoney Keeley is the Editor in Chief of The SoBros Network, third on Football & Other F Words, co-host of The Hot Read Podcast, analyst for Stacking The Inbox, and a Dogs Playing Poker on velvet connoisseur. He is a strong supporter of Team GSD, #BeBetter, and ‘Minds right, asses tight.’ “Big Natural” covers the Tennessee Titans, the NFL Draft, Nashville, Yankee Candle, and a whole wealth of nonsense. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley.
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