The Colts are about to finish the offseason with some post-draft free agency moves, marking the 10th offseason under Chris Ballard. The decade of Ballard’s management has been a wild rollercoaster ride, albeit not all of it due to Ballard himself. But after this Ballard decade, how does the Colts roster stack up from 2026 compared to 2016, the last year of the Grigson era?
In this position by position series, we breakdown each spot of the Colts roster to see if the Colts are better or worse than their
counterparts from a decade ago. If you want to find our previous entries of this series, you can find them below:
Up next: Tight Ends.
2016 TEs: Jack Doyle, Dwayne Allen, Erik Swope
2026 TEs: Tyler Warren, Mo Alie-Cox, Andrew Ogletree
2016 Doyle was underrated for his time. Was he a dominant receiver? No, he only averaged 9.9 Yards per Receptions and had just 5 TDs while having a solid 59 catches and 584 yards. But Doyle was the epitome of dependable. He caught 78.7% of his 75 targets as the Colts 2nd leading target of 2016 while also being one of the best blocking Tight Ends in the NFL.
Doyle split the Receiving Work with Dwayne Allen, who had a bounce back year in 2016. Allen had an unfortunate pattern with the Colts of great TE2 production in even year seasons (521 yards in 2012, nearly 400 yards but 8 TDs in 2014) culminating in 406 receiving yards and 6 TDs in 2016, but on odd years he suffered either injury or major regression. 2016 was Allen’s last hurrah with the Colts, and he had a good one as the 5th option of the Colts passing attack.
Erik Swoope was a nice big play TE3 find for the Colts, as he had just 4 starts, 22 targets, and 15 catches, but racked up 297 yards (19.8 Yards per Catch), and a TD. Overall the Colts 2016 Tight Ends weren’t the most dynamic unit, but they were a deep and varied one with 109 receptions, 1,187 yards and 12 TDs on 149 targets.
Tyler Warren might just match some of those stat totals by his lonesome. The 2025 rookie Tight End out of Penn State racked up 76 catches, 817 yards, and 4 TDs in his rookie season on just 112 targets, as well as added 8 rushing yards and another TD on the ground. 684 of the receiving yards and all of his TDs were scored prior to Daniel Jones’ Achilles tear in Week 14. With Michael Pittman Jr. gone and leaving a 111 target hole in his wake, Warren has the opportunity to emerge as the true focal point of the Colts passing attack.
As the highest drafted Tight End in Colts History, Warren certainly joined the Colts with high expectations, and being an arguably top 5 Tight End in the NFL as a rookie was a strong start. Now as the presumptive top target with the Colts, Warren could be the 2nd Colts Tight End to have a 1,000 yard season, with the only season prior being Dallas Clark’s 1,106 yard season in 2009.
The depth behind Warren is also a strong point for the 2026 team. Mo Alie-Cox has long been one of the best blocking Tight Ends in the NFL and is a strong after the catch threat with his powerful play style. Andrew Ogletree has also developed from a former Wide Receiver to a stout inline blocker as well. Neither should get a heavy workload in the receiving game with the depth of passing options. But when the Colts go heavy personnel, the Colts have the Tight Ends to be devastating blockers for the run game and very capable receiving options to rely upon in the middle of the field.
Advantage: 2026 Colts
Both eras of Colts TEs are a position of strength for each team. Both have depth to dominate the middle of the field in both the run and the pass games, but the 2026 TE depth chart has the better starter and more consistently healthy depth chart.
As much as I love Jack Doyle as a player, he was never in top 10 TE conversations like Tyler Warren was in 2025. And the scary thing is how much more Warren can grow as a player past his rookie year. Colts fans likely haven’t seen the best of what Warren can do, and that is a terrifying prospect for opponents.
The Colts have the same Tight End unit in 2026 as in 2025, which produced:
- 94 Receptions / 137 Targets = 68.6% Catch %
- 977 Receiving Yards
- 10.6 Yards Per Reception
- 7 Total TDs
While that didn’t outperform 2016’s stats in part due to lower volume and Red Zone usage (along with QB play), there is ample reason to believe in Tyler Warren getting more looks in the endzone with 2025 TD leader (7) Michael Pittman Jr. gone.
Expect big things from Warren as the leader of the Colts passing attack in 2026.
