Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson summed up Penn State tight end Tyler Warren perfectly on Monday during an interview with CHGO's Adam Hoge.
"He's the definition of a football player," Johnson said.
Indeed, he is.
And Warren is the kind of football player who will rank high on the Bears' 2025 NFL Draft board, especially if the coaching staff has a strong influence over who GM Ryan Poles selects at No. 10 overall.
"We did a cool little exercise a couple of weeks ago with Ryan, and Ian, and Jeff King was in it, myself and also the coordinators," Johnson said. "We had Dennis and we had Declan and we watched a number of the 20 to 30 top prospects in this draft. Tyler got up there and to me, what I'll always remember is Dennis Allen speaking up about how much of a headache it would be to go up against a player like that.
"Not only is he a tenacious football player, he blocks, he runs hard, but the fact that you could put him in the backfield and do some wildcat with him, he felt like that was kind of unique and would give him issues for a defensive coordinator."
Whether the Bears like Warren enough to make him their preferred first-round target remains up for debate, especially with Cole Kmet, who's only two years removed from signing a four-year, $50 million contract extension, still on the roster and in his prime at 26 years old.
Sure, Kmet was one of Chicago's biggest disappointments in 2024, but anyone who paid attention to the Bears last season knows the blame doesn't belong on him. Instead, the inept offense deployed by Shane Waldron seemingly ignored Kmet as an option early in the year, and his '24 campaign never got back on track.
Still, Kmet is one of the more talented tight ends in the NFC. The Bears don't need a player like Warren for their offense. He'd be more of a luxury pick who'd require Johnson figuring out ways to feature two tight ends as often as possible. If there's any offensive mind who's capable of doing that, it's the Bears' head coach (how cool is it to say that, huh?). But I'd be really surprised if Poles pivots away from the offensive line or running back Ashton Jeanty for Warren, regardless of how much the coaching staff adores his style of play.
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