The Colts’ trade deadline moves have left Tyler Warren with little room to blend into the background.
Indianapolis has already watched the season veer off course, and the latest roster shakeup only sharpens the spotlight on its second-year tight end. With Josh Downs and Keenan Allen now playing for other teams and Alec Pierce still sidelined by an ankle injury, Warren is suddenly the obvious centerpiece of what’s left of the passing game. The final eight games are now about him producing like the player the Colts expected.
That expectation was high from the start. Warren came into the league as the top tight end in most mock drafts, and he went second at the position after the Chicago Bears took Colston Loveland. For much of their rookie seasons, Warren actually looked like the better player.
Training camp only fueled the excitement. Beat writers and analysts kept praising his ball-winning ability and physical edge, which made his early struggles even harder to explain. Instead of separating cleanly and winning against coverage, he’s spent the first half of the season looking stuck.
There are possible reasons. He may not have been fully right after suffering a groin injury late in training camp, or maybe Daniel Jones’ issues have dragged him down with the rest of the passing attack. Whatever the cause, the numbers have been underwhelming: 275 receiving yards and two touchdowns on 38 catches.
Even with a couple of missed games, Warren’s weekly output has been modest. He’s averaging 39.5 receiving yards per game, despite seeing the fifth-most targets among tight ends with 53.
The Colts’ decision to trade Quenton Nelson and DeForest Buckner already signaled a season that had gone sideways, and losing Keenan Allen and Josh Downs only adds to that. But for Warren, the situation may create the exact kind of opening he needs to shake off the disappointment and show he wasn’t just a one-year flash.
There’s a catch, of course. More targets also means more defensive attention, so the opportunity comes with a built-in challenge.
Still, on paper, Warren’s production has to rise from here. Daniel Jones doesn’t have many other reliable options left.
It’s never fair to pin a team’s problems on one player alone, but elite talent comes with elite expectations. Warren is also set to be the final first-round pick of the Chris Ballard era, and with the fired executive’s draft record under scrutiny, Indianapolis isn’t handing out the benefit of the doubt to anyone anymore.
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Colts Fans Are Losing Faith In This Rebuild Fast
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Five straight defeats have only deepened the sense that this is a franchise in transition, but not yet one with a clear finish line. The Colts have already moved on from key names such as Quenton Nelson, DeForest Buckner, Keenan Allen and Josh Downs, and while that points to a long-term rebuild, it has also left plenty of uncertainty about where the team is headed and who will be steering it there. [Read more 🡒]