INDIANAPOLIS COLTS QUARTERBACK Daniel Jones dropped back and threw a deep pass across his body into Atlanta Falcons territory. Rookie tight end Tyler Warren was the target, but he had four defenders nearby, including former second-team All-Pro A.J. Terrell.
Warren tracked the ball over his right shoulder and hauled it in for a 23-yard gain in overtime. Five plays later, Jonathan Taylor scored the game-winning touchdown with Warren as the lead blocker.
Watching from his seats in the end zone, Colts general manager Chris Ballard turned to director of administration Cal Handelman and said: “That’s Dave Casper,” referring to the Super Bowl champion and four-time first-team All-Pro with the Oakland Raiders in the 1970s and ’80s.
“He looked like Dave Casper catching the ball,” Ballard said. “And it was beautiful.”
Casper is one of 10 tight ends enshrined in Canton. Ten games into his career, Warren was drawing Hall of Fame comparisons and affirming the Colts’ decision to draft him with the No. 14 pick.
Warren was drafted shortly after the Chicago Bears picked Colston Loveland at No. 9, marking only the second time multiple tight ends were selected that high in the same draft. And both delivered. Loveland led the NFC North champs with 713 receiving yards, while Warren was second on the Colts with 817. Will their success portend more tight ends being taken early this year?
Oregon’s Kenyon Sadiq is set to go in Round 1 this April, and ESPN NFL draft analyst Matt Miller has him landing with the Baltimore Ravens at No. 14 in his latest mock draft. While he’s the only tight end expected to go in the first round this year, the class is deep at the position. And Sadiq would be the 12th tight end taken in the first round over a 10-year span after only six went in the previous 10 years.
“This league is a copycat league,” ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr. said. “[Teams] see something that’s working and they say, ‘We can do exactly that.’ We need a certain type of athlete to be able to do that.”
WITH 25 SECONDS remaining and the Bears trailing the Cincinnati Bengals 42-41 in their Week 9 game, Caleb Williams fired a dart into triple coverage that Loveland hauled in before breaking two tackles and racing in for a 58-yard touchdown.
It marked Loveland’s most productive day of the regular season (six catches, 118 yards, 2 TDs) and sparked a chemistry that eventually made him Williams’ top receiving threat. Over his final four games, including playoff matchups against the Green Bay Packers and Los Angeles Rams, Loveland was targeted no fewer than 10 times each outing.
“I think the impact that [tight ends] have on a quarterback is key,” Bears general manager Ryan Poles said. “I think it’s unique to have two guys [Loveland and Warren] like that, that start hot like that. Their intelligence played a part in that.
“Really fortunate to have Colston. I think he elevates our whole team.”
Bears coach Ben Johnson is no stranger to elite rookie tight ends. The Detroit Lions’ Sam LaPorta set the NFL record for receptions by a rookie tight end at 86 in 2023, when Johnson was his offensive coordinator.
LaPorta was a second-round pick, and some of the NFL’s most productive tight ends were drafted on Day 2 or 3, highlighted by the Chiefs future Hall of Famer Travis Kelce, who was seleced in the third round (63rd) in 2013. San Francisco waited until the fifth round (146th) in 2017 to draft George Kittle, who has finished first or second on the Niners in receiving in six of his nine seasons.
Colston Loveland. House call. #Bengals defense, yikes. pic.twitter.com/x9xQ9w76oo
— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) November 2, 2025
The impact these players had on their playcallers being able to deploy them across formations paved the way for the next crop of tight ends to go earlier in the draft. Since 2019, five tight ends were taken in the top 14: T.J. Hockenson (No. 8 by the Lions in 2019), Kyle Pitts Sr. (Falcons, No. 4 in 2021), Brock Bowers (Raiders, No. 13 in 2024) and Loveland (10th in 2025) and Warren (14th in 2025).
“The days about worrying whether they’re in-line, whether they’re an H-back are over,” Kiper said. “We’re taking that guy, we’re going to label him a weapon and we’re going to utilize a high draft pick on him because he’s going to be incredibly valuable to our offense and be able to be one of our key performers on that side of the ball.
“That’s what these guys have become.”
ONE OF THE first items on Ian Cunningham’s offseason to-do list after being hired as the general manager of the Falcons on Jan. 29 was figuring out how the team would approach its negotiations with Pitts.
Pitts was the highest-drafted tight end in modern NFL history and burst on to the scene as a rookie with 68 receptions for 1,026 yards and a touchdown. After three down seasons, Pitts rebounded last year with 88 receptions and five TDs — both career highs — to go along with 928 yards.
With its new coaching staff led by Kevin Stefanski and front office in place, Atlanta placed the franchise tag on Pitts on Feb. 24 to give the team more time to evaluate its long-term options before the July 15 deadline.
Stefanski was the head coach in Cleveland when the Browns gave 2017 first-rounder David Njoku a four-year, $56.75 million extension in 2022.
Njoku is the only first-round tight end since 2011 to sign a multiyear extension with the team that drafted him. Njoku had a career-best season in 2023, with 81 catches (on 123 targets) for 882 yards and six touchdowns.
“Because it’s such a unique position, usually those are really, really smart guys,” Cunningham said. “I feel like that position is going to continue to grow moving forward.”
While NFL teams utilized nickel defenses — five defensive backs on the field — roughly 60% of the time in 2025, offensive playcallers have turned to the tight end position to create mismatches.
“I think you’re seeing so much nickel defense now that teams are playing nickel with bigger-bodied guys,” Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer said. “So what the tight ends do, they have the bodies to either match up in blocking schemes or to get open with body control against those big safeties now playing near the box.”
The 6-foot-3, 245-pound Sadiq isn’t that big, and his stats (51 receptions, 560 yards, eight TDs last season) aren’t jaw-dropping, but he’s projected to hear his name called early in the first round on April 23.
“He’s like [14-year NFL veteran tight end] Vernon Davis,” one NFC front office executive said. “Super athletic with elite speed and big-play potential.”
Kenyon Sadiq had one of the best days ever by a TE at the Combine:
40-Yard Dash: 4.39 (best ever by a TE)Vertical Jump: 43.5” (second-best ever by a TE)Broad Jump: 11’1” (third-best ever by a TE)@Accenture | @oregonfootball pic.twitter.com/fxvABmsGrd
— NFL (@NFL) February 28, 2026
Sadiq ran 58.5% of his routes out of the slot last year and led all FBS tight ends with five touchdown receptions while lined up in the slot. His athletic traits and testing numbers are also drawing rave reviews from NFL evaluators. He recorded a 4.39-second 40-yard dash (98th percentile all time for tight ends), a 43.5-inch vertical jump (99th percentile) and an 11-foot-1 broad jump (98th percentile).
“Versatility is huge, being able to create explosive pass plays, but also being able to run the ball,” Sadiq said. “It creates a lot of mismatches on the defensive side, whether they’re nickel or base or whatever it is.
“So, I think if you have a great tight end or a couple great tight ends, it really helps out your offense as a whole.”
If Miller is right and Sadiq ends up in Baltimore opposite Mark Andrews, the Ravens may be on the verge of something special.
