Tyler Warren leaps up and makes a one-handed catch at Penn State’s 27-yard line. He dashes into opposing territory and barrels toward the end zone before barely being tackled at Ole Miss’ five-yard line, sending the Penn State faithful at Mercedes-Benz Stadium into a frenzy.

It’s eye-popping plays such as that one that Warren produces game after game. Penn State football’s senior tight end has slowly but surely become a crucial part of the team’s offense, and arguably its best and most important player heading into the 2024 season.

What makes Warren so important is that he’s a complete player.

“He’s the most complete tight end in the country,” James Franklin said. “He truly is a weapon in the run game, as a blocker. He truly is a weapon on third down in the passing game.”

“How are they going to treat him?” Franklin continued. “He can line up wide and play like a wide receiver in a four-wide set, but he can also connect in the box and be a lead blocker or working in a double team the offensive tackle on the d-ends and the outside linebackers.”

This creates a nightmare for opposing defenses and coaching staffs. Warren is so versatile that it’s hard to know what to expect from him on any given day, simply because he’s capable of so much.

While most tight ends are good at either blocking or receiving, Warren is good at both. As a result, opponents sometimes have a difficult time categorizing Warren as one or the other when game-planning for him.

“Those are the tight ends, in my opinion, when you talk to defensive coordinators all over the country, they’re the ones that they hate – is when they can’t put them into a category,” Franklin said.

Warren was pleased to hear about Franklin’s high praise. However, he said it’s a testament to the entire tight end room and how tight ends coach Ty Howle runs it.

“I think that just really speaks to our tight end room,” Warren said. “We’re all about doing everything we can as a tight end position, which is run blocking and pass-catching, and whatever else they might ask us to do. So yeah, it means a lot. And I think that’s what we pride ourselves on as a tight end room and as a whole.”

Warren is 6’6″ and 261 pounds. Warren has gotten stronger every year, and his statistics have also had linear improvements.

Last year, Warren set career highs with 422 receiving yards and seven touchdowns. This was despite playing alongside now-New York Giant Theo Johnson, who was expected to play significantly more than Warren. However, Warren ended up having better statistics.

The Mechanicsville, Virginia, native credited his improvements to Johnson and other previous Penn State tight ends who are now in the NFL.

“It was a long journey. I got a lot of older guys I got to play with that are great tight ends at the next level now that I’ve got to learn a lot from,” Warren said.

For Warren, trusting the timing and process was important. He stressed that he was consistently willing to do what was asked of him and that nothing significant has changed in the way Penn State runs its tight end room.

“It was really just trusting the process and doing what was asked of me with the offense. Earlier it was a limited role with three total tight ends that were playing, and it was three tight ends where I played a bit more, but still three tight ends,” Warren said.

“And last year it was mostly me and Theo predominately. So it’s not really anything changing, it’s just the amount of reps and looks we get as tight ends because we had a lot of dudes in the room sharing it, and there’s gonna be a lot of tight ends playing this year too.”