The Miami Dolphins might have the chance to build the best tight end room in the National Football League.
At the end of the 2023 season, Mike McDaniel said in an interview that the next iteration in his offense was the tight end position. Dolphins fans got a glimpse of that last season by watching Jonnu Smith set team single-season records for receptions and yards by a tight end, finishing with 88 receptions for 884 yards and eight touchdowns. Smith had a very good season but was especially clutch after the calendar hit November, scoring 7 of his eight touchdowns after November 1st.
After Smith though the tight end position gets a little thin. McDaniel has taken a liking to Julian Hill, why, I’m not really sure. Hill has been fine. He’s done some nice things but he also has a tendency to make mistakes and commit penalties at the worst possible time. I’m fine with Hill as number three on the depth chart.
This brings me back to my opening sentence. The Dolphins may have the opportunity to make the tight end room special, and they have a great tight ends coach in Jon Embree.
This year’s draft class is fairly deep at tight end, and one particular one stands out.
The top-rated tight end in the draft is almost unanimously to be Tyler Warren from Penn State. In full disclosure, I’m a Penn State fan, so there is a natural bias in my opinion, but I’ve also watched a lot of football in my life, and I know what a very good player looks like. Warren is just that, a very good player. Warren put up wide receiver numbers last season by catching 104 passes for 1123 yards and eight touchdowns. The Nittany Lions also used Warren in the running game, often using him to pick up short yardage. Something we all know that Miami struggles with. Warren rushed the ball 26 times for 218 yards and four touchdowns, but hang on; he also was 3 for 6 as a passer with 35 yards and a touchdown. For the non-math people out there, that all equates to 136 touches for 1,376 yards and 13 total touchdowns. AS A TIGHT END! Warren has all this production while also being more than adequate in the blocking game.
Warren, as a tight end, finished 7th in the Heisman voting. You didn’t misread that, seventh. He received one first-place vote, seven second-place votes, and 35 third-place votes.
So, you can probably tell by the tone of this article that if Tyler Warren is available when the Dolphins come on the clock at 13, I’m sprinting to the podium and drafting him. I understand there are bigger needs on the Dolphins roster, but technically, Warren is an offensive lineman. All of a sudden, two tight-end alignments aren’t always going to be a tell that a run is coming.
Should Warren not be available or the Dolphins choose to go in another direction, there will still be options later in the draft. One obvious crowd favorite will be Mason Taylor from LSU. As a Dolphins fan you already know Taylor’s pedigree but in case you’ve been living under a football rock, Mason Taylor is the son of Miami Dolphin legend and NFL Hall of Famer, Jason Taylor. Taylor projects to be a late second to early third round prospect.
Other potential options in the draft include Colston Loveland from Michigan, Gunnar Helm from Texas, Elijah Arroyo from Miami and another player with Dolphins ties, Oronde Gadsden II from Syracuse.
The Dolphins should have plenty of options in the draft to help solidify their tight end room. If I’m Chris Grier, Warren is my target if there, but if not, I’m adding one of the aforementioned names to the roster. The coming weeks could shed some light on how the Dolphins will approach the draft. Whatever they decide, it should be an exciting offseason.
