Tyler Warren opened his rookie year looking like the best tight end in his draft class. The second half went in a very different direction. Indianapolis has lost its leading receiver and has questions about who replaces those targets. Should fantasy managers buy Warren in 2026?
Should I Draft Tyler Warren in Fantasy Football?
Warren’s season was essentially the mirror image of Colston Loveland’s.
He stormed out of the gate, establishing himself as a clear TE1 and immediately looking like the vastly superior pick of the two rookies. Warren posted 14 or more fantasy points in five of his first seven games. Anyone who drafted him felt great about it through the first two months.
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Then everything largely fell apart. Warren hit double digits just twice the rest of the season. A portion of that decline coincided with Daniel Jones tearing his Achilles, and losing your starting quarterback will do that to any pass catcher.
The honest read is that Warren was already trending downward before the injury, though. That is worth sitting with, because it is not the typical arc we see from rookies. Most first-year players start slow and finish strong as the game slows down for them. Warren did the opposite, which raises a fair question about whether defenses simply figured him out.
Nevertheless, his outlook for a sophomore season is pretty rosy, and the reason is opportunity.
Michael Pittman Jr. is gone. Alec Pierce is no lock to be ready for Week 1, as his ankle injury remains a genuine problem with no clear resolution. Warren is poised to be the clear top option in this passing game, which is a meaningful step up from competing for looks as a rookie.
The quarterback situation points the right way too. Reports on Jones’ recovery have been overwhelmingly positive. If he truly is good to go and has confidence pushing off that surgically repaired Achilles, the entire offense benefits.
Warren has already proven he can command volume. He earned a 21.2% target share as a rookie, which is excellent for a first-year tight end. It would not shock me at all to see that climb toward 25% this season with the competition thinned out.
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Here is the bet in a sentence. If we can get first-half-of-2025 Warren across a full season, he absolutely smashes his ADP. That version was a legitimate positional difference maker, and the path to sustaining it is clearer now than it was a year ago.
Warren is my TE4 and the TE4 by ADP. I would consider him not long after Loveland comes off the board, typically somewhere in Round 5.
Katz’s TE Fantasy Rankings 2026
- Brock Bowers | LV
- Trey McBride | ARI
- Colston Loveland | CHI
- Tyler Warren | IND
- Tucker Kraft | GB
- Sam LaPorta | DET
- George Kittle | SF
- Harold Fannin Jr. | CLE
- Kyle Pitts Sr. | ATL
- Isaiah Likely | NYG
- Travis Kelce | KC
- Dallas Goedert | PHI
- Jake Ferguson | DAL
- Mark Andrews | BAL
- Juwan Johnson | NO
- Dalton Kincaid | BUF
- Chig Okonkwo | WAS
- Brenton Strange | JAX
- Hunter Henry | NE
- Kenyon Sadiq | NYJ
- Dalton Schultz | HOU
- Greg Dulcich | MIA
- AJ Barner | SEA
- T.J. Hockenson | MIN
- Oronde Gadsden II | LAC
- Terrance Ferguson | LAR
- Gunnar Helm | TEN
- Evan Engram | DEN
- Cade Otton | TB
- Colby Parkinson | LAR
