INDIANAPOLIS – Tyler Warren still appreciates the blue-and-white team colors.
Everything else has changed — his number, the shade of blue he wears, even his new decals-laden helmet.
This is what happens when the best tight end in college football turns pro. Warren, Penn State’s most versatile player in 2024, now finds himself on a steep, speedy and increasingly steady learning curve at training camp with the Indianapolis Colts.
“I think it’s been kind of normal installing and learning the offense, just taking your time and trying to understand it,” he said after just a couple of workouts. “It does take stuff (to do) on my own, right? We go through it in the meeting, but when I go back to the hotel room looking over it again, doing walk-throughs with somebody is, I think, is the most helpful.”
Starting over isn’t easy for anyone, though Warren seems uniquely suited to make a smoot transition.
He played center and quarterback as a prep star in Virginia. He played fullback at Penn State before moving to tight end. Then last season the Nittany Lion coaches threw out the vanilla playbook and tailored it to Warren’s unusual skill set.
It seemed there was nothing he couldn’t do.
Warren set a single-season school record with 104 receptions, topped the 1,000-yard mark, emerged as a short-yardage rushing beast and became the first Big Ten tight end to rush for four scores in one season since 1956. He even threw a TD pass and returned a kickoff.
The resume was so impressive, he earned the John Mackey Award and All-American honors, helped Penn State reach the CFP Playoffs all while improving his draft stock.
Indy took him No. 14 overall in the draft and it hasn’t taken long for Warren to showcase his skills in camp, including Thursday night when he made an off-balance, one-handed stab while falling down for a first down. The play drew a loud roar from the crowd and praise from coach Shane Steichen.
“It was an incredible catch,” Steichen said. “But I did get some backlash because some of the guys thought it was a sack and it might have been. I’ll take that back. It probably, definitely was, but I was watching the route. It was a heck of a catch, and you saw that on his college tape.”
It’s a major improvement from Warren’s first few practices when he struggled to hold onto the passes thrown by Anthony Richardson and Daniel Jones, who are battling to be the Colts starting quarterback.
Indy has plenty of depth with seven tight ends on the roster and five with NFL experience, but they’ve not had a reliable go-to player at the position since two-time Pro Bowler Jack Doyle retired following the 2021 season.
Just how much do the Colts think of Warren?
Because linebacker and four-time captain Zaire Franklin, last year’s league tackling leader, wears Warren’s college number, 44, they gave him No. 84, Doyle’s old number, and started experimenting with the playbook — just like the Penn State staff.
“We’re putting a lot on his plate, and sometimes you push them a little bit beyond their threshold,” offensive coordinator Jim Bob Cooter said. “I think he’s going to be a very versatile piece for us. We’re going to try a bunch of different stuff with him, give him a bunch of shots at a bunch of different aspects playing offensive football.”
Now, Warren is starting to figure out exactly where he fits in this offense.
He’s starting to make the explosive and wow plays Colts scouts envisioned after watching him in college. He’s already lined up in the backfield, too, and it’s unclear just what else might have happened behind closed doors. Warren isn’t dropping any hints, either.
Next up is his first big test: At Baltimore, not far from his aptly named hometown of Mechanicsville, Virginia, or the campus in State College, Pennsylvania, where he wore dark blue.
The Colts and Ravens square off Tuesday in a joint practice and again two nights later in royal blue.
Steichen said the coaching staff anticipates determining who plays and how much in the Indy’s preseason opener by Monday, and Warren can’t wait to start showing the NFL his true colors.
“The biggest difference between being a pro compared to college, I mean everybody’s a pro, right? Everybody’s really good and it’s tough competition,” he said. “But that’s a blessing. Great competition is a gift. Being around really good players is only going to make me better.”
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