Tyler
Warren.
Tyler
Warren.
Penn State· 6'6"· 256 lb
"A converted high school quarterback who grew into college football's most versatile offensive weapon: an inline tight end, slot mismatch, wildcat runner and goal-line passer, sometimes inside the same drive."Pre-draft read
Warren aligns across the formation, including inline, in the slot, in the backfield, and split wide. He uses body lean and hand swipes to stem routes, and his eyes work against zone coverage, allowing him to settle into voids and present a wide target. He catches with late-plucking hands, using his frame to shield defenders and win contested throws through the catch point.
After the catch, he carries the ball like a former quarterback, maintaining square pads, absorbing initial contact, and falling forward. As a blocker, he is willing and sustains at the point of attack, effective as a lead blocker. He also possesses a throwing package, which requires defenses to account for him as a passer.
Indianapolis Colts' offense employs a Shanahan outside zone scheme, emphasizing athletic, versatile tight ends who can stretch the seam horizontally and contribute to play-action concepts.
Warren could be an immediate 'big slot' receiver and an H-back who features in specific packages, with a ceiling to develop into a highly versatile starting 'move' tight end who creates mismatches against LBs and Safeties.
Warren would be a poor fit for a gap/duo power run scheme that demands a true inline 'Y' tight end capable of consistently overpowering elite NFL edge rushers in one-on-one blocking assignments without scheme help.
Warren's rare positional versatility, including the ability to throw, makes him a unique offensive weapon whose impact transcends traditional tight end roles, allowing the Colts to creatively deploy him across various formations and play designs.
Best TE in the Nation: Tyler Warren 2024 Penn State Highlights
Season-long reel showing the full alignment menu, from inline blocking to wildcat carries and contested catches.
Penn State TE Tyler Warren: Every 2024 Target and Touch
Full all-22 style cut-up of every 2024 target and carry, the best single source for route usage and hands evaluation.
The Game of Tyler Warren: Penn State vs USC 2024
The 17-catch record performance against USC that pushed him into the first round.
Warren projects as a versatile, move tight end who offers scheme versatility and contested-catch ability. Teams acquire a player capable of winning with physical traits at the catch point and contributing as a runner after contact, leveraging his background. His one-year breakout season makes his evaluation reliant on a shorter sample of high-level production, but that production was overwhelming.
He played five seasons, serving as a role player for four before a redshirt-senior season transformed his projection. In 2024, he recorded 104 receptions for 1,233 yards and 8 touchdowns, adding 26 carries for 218 yards and 4 scores. This earned him the John Mackey Award and unanimous first-team All-American honors, highlighted by a 17-reception game against USC, a position record.
Evaluators placed him in a consensus range of picks 10-20. Concerns included an unremarkable long-speed profile and the single-year breakout at 22, which limited ceiling projections. His genuine versatility and overwhelming production were key factors that propelled him into the first round, where the Indianapolis Colts drafted him 14th overall.
- 01
Positional versatility
Utilized inline, in the slot, as a fullback, in the wildcat, and under center, producing real snaps and touches from each alignment.
- 02
Contested ball skills
Demonstrates strong, late hands that pluck outside his frame, tracking deep balls over either shoulder and winning through contact.
- 03
Yards after catch
Runs with a contact balance that breaks arm tackles and converts shallow crossers into chunk gains through traffic.
- 04
Scoring finisher
Recorded 19 career receiving touchdowns and 6 rushing scores, using his body to box out safeties and a stiff-arm to finish plays in close.
- 05
Blocking willingness
Sustains at the point of attack and climbs to the second level, preventing defenses from keying run or pass based on his alignment.
- 01
Long speed
Builds to full stride rather than exploding, often being run down from behind on extended catch-and-run plays.
- 02
Route nuance
Functions more as a schemed-touch producer than a route technician, with rounded breaks and limited tempo variation.
- 03
One-year sample
His evaluation largely depends on one dominant redshirt-senior season, following 49 catches in his first 41 college games.
- 04
Inline hand placement
Delivers wide strikes against heavy edge setters, allowing them to work across his face and shortening his sustain time on down blocks.
| Yr | Team | G | Rec | Yds | TD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Penn State | 13 | 5 | 61 | 1 |
| 2022 | Penn State | 12 | 10 | 123 | 3 |
| 2023 | Penn State | 13 | 34 | 422 | 7 |
| 2024 | Penn State | 16 | 104 | 1233 | 8 |
| Career | — | 54 | 153 | 1839 | 19 |
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
- Drew AllarQB24%
- Harrison Wallace IIIWR10%
- Nicholas SingletonRB10%
#2 of 15 tracked contributors · Produced in line with his snap share · Offense explosiveness 1.20 (p20) · CFBD — usage x PPA per tracked player
Honors
- John Mackey Award (2024)
- Unanimous first-team All-American (2024)
- First-team All-Big Ten (2024)
- Third-team All-Big Ten (2023)
- FBS single-game record for a tight end: 17 receptions vs. USC (2024)
A high-volume, tough-to-tackle intermediate target who wins with size and balance instead of speed, and who blocks well enough to stay on the field on early downs.
The ceiling if the run-after-catch violence and the blocking both translate: a tight end who is the offense's identity rather than a complementary piece.
The floor if the athletic limits show up against NFL safeties: a reliable chain-mover and red-zone target without the schemed-touch value he carried in college.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Rookie Pro Bowl tight end for the Colts after winning the 2024 John Mackey Award at Penn State.
The most useful way to understand Tyler Warren is to remember what he was recruited to be. He arrived at Penn State as a high school quarterback from Mechanicsville, Virginia, and for four seasons he was a utility body: a fullback here, a short-yardage battering ram there, a red-zone target who caught eleven touchdowns on his first 49 career receptions. Then 2024 happened. Given a full-time role and a play-caller willing to build packages around him, he produced 104 catches for 1,233 yards, ran the ball 26 times for four more scores, threw a pass, and put up a 17-reception afternoon against USC that no tight end in the sport had ever matched. It was not empty volume either; Penn State finished the year converting on half of its offensive snaps and the tight end was the safety valve who made that possible, the outlet on third down and the mismatch in the red area. The Mackey Award followed, and so did a genuine argument about whether a tight end deserved a top-fifteen selection.
The pushback was real and it was fair. Warren was 22, his breakout was a single season, and his athletic testing profile suggested a player who wins by size and balance rather than by running away from anyone. Scouts who liked him argued that the game speed showed up anyway, in the way he stacked contact and stayed upright, and that a player who blocked inline, ran out of the wildcat and lined up in the slot was inherently harder to defend than a faster tight end with one job. Indianapolis took him 14th overall and used him the way Penn State had. His rookie season answered the volume question immediately: 76 receptions for 817 yards and four touchdowns across 17 games, a rushing score, a PFWA All-Rookie selection and a Pro Bowl nod, plus a stretch in December when he was listed as the team's emergency quarterback. The long-speed limitation is still visible on tape and probably always will be. What has not been an issue is the thing that mattered most in the evaluation: whether a schemed-touch college weapon could remain a schemed-touch professional one. So far, he has.