Warren didn't just win a starting job as a rookie, he became a formation unto himself. Shane Steichen lined him up out wide, in the slot, in a three-point fullback stance, in the backfield as a lead blocker, and even took snaps himself in wildcat looks. That's not a gadget package for a few plays a game, it's how Indianapolis built its offense around a player nobody else on the roster can replace, and it's why his snap share dwarfed every other tight end on the team.
What makes it work is what he does after the catch. Warren isn't a big body who wins on size alone, he breaks tackles like a running back and turned short completions into some of the longest gains any tight end in the league produced after the catch. He earned first-read looks in the red zone in college and carried that into the pros, and the carries the Colts occasionally hand him out of the backfield are less a novelty than a sign of how much they trust his hands and his legs in the same play.
The honest risk isn't Warren, it's the offense around him. His rookie numbers were built with Daniel Jones playing the best football of his career before Jones went down with a torn Achilles in December and the passing attack cratered without him. Jones says he's fully cleared now, but a tight end who wins as the first read in an efficient, quarterback-driven scheme is only as safe as that quarterback's legs. If Jones isn't the same player coming off that injury, Warren's route tree doesn't change but the volume behind it could.
LaPorta is the cleanest gut-check. He's a similarly explosive, versatile tight end who broke out fast, but Detroit surrounded him with enough receiving talent that he's openly discussed as the offense's third or fourth read behind Amon-Ra St. Brown, Jameson Williams and Jahmyr Gibbs. Warren has never had to fight through that kind of a room. Indianapolis doesn't have a receiver who commands a defense's attention the way St. Brown does, which means every snap Warren spends lined up as a receiver, a fullback or a wildcat threat is still a snap the offense is built to feed him, not work around him.
