The longtime Indy legend joined the High Volume podcast with Jeffrey Gorman to reflect on his career as well as talk current-day Colts.
In the years since Jack Doyle’s retirement, the Indianapolis Colts have longed for a capable, every-down tight end. With the drafting of consensus top tight end Tyler Warren, the Colts believe they’ve found the long-term, missing piece that the team had increasingly yearned for.
Recently, Jack Doyle joined Jeffrey Gorman for an episode of High Volume, an in-house podcast that includes talks with Colts legends from both the past and present. During the episode in question, Doyle reflected on his time in his hometown of Indianapolis, his career in the NFL, and also took time to chat about the current-day version of the Colts.
“I always wanted to be an All-Star in my role. Whatever that role was, whether it was special teams early on, or starting to get into the offense a bit; whatever they asked me to do, I wanted to do it to the best of my ability and help the team. Day in and day out, just try to work…It was Robert Mathis, I remember saying, ‘They’re always trying to take your locker. Don’t let ’em.’”
Lo and behold, Jack Doyle exemplified everything he mentioned during his nine years with the Indianapolis Colts. A once-was undrafted free agent waiver claim from the Titans, Doyle became everything the organization strived to find in a succession plan at tight end.
When it comes to the Colts’ 2025 first-round pick, tight end Tyler Warren, Doyle too has high hopes that he’ll blossom into the very player he was in the league, at the least.
“Yeah, I mean, he’s just a stud. [He’s] an all-around tight end,” Doyle said about Warren. “Obviously, I’m biased toward the tight end position, the willingness to block, his body control, his balance, his run-after-catch — the dragging guys 4-5 yards — getting 10 yards after a 7-yard catch, that saves your team from getting another first down. It’s huge and something you don’t notice if you’re a casual fan watching, but being able to not make your team have to convert more first downs is good, right? We want to get yards. A tight end just helps a quarterback get in rhythm. It builds confidence. They’re usually easier throws, get ‘em the ball early, and make some rhythm throws. I think it’s going to be a good thing for the Colts.”
Nobody fairly expects Tyler Warren to shatter records as a rookie on a team that is currently amid uncertainty at the quarterback position, though the bar is on the floor. The last Colts tight end to produce 800+ receiving yards in a season was Dallas Clark in 2009. Even more so, since Doyle’s final Pro Bowl nod in 2019, the Colts are the only team in the NFL to not have a tight end produce a 500+ receiving yard season.
Although Tyler Warren’s Mackey Award-winning season as a senior at Penn State filled up the stat sheet — 104 receptions, 1,233 receiving yards (11.9 ypc), and 8 receiving touchdowns — the transition to the next level, particularly due to the aforementioned question mark that is Indy’s QB room, suggests expectations must be tempered early on.
One thing’s for certain regarding Tyler Warren and that’s Jack Doyle’s seal of approval as a biased tight end enjoyer and Colts supporter. Even if Warren blossoms into the very tight end everyone envisions, aka a top 5 producer at the position, his similarities to Doyle when it comes to his physicality and mentality are what’ll ultimately provide him a high floor as an NFL player. Therefore, the fact he’s been passed the proverbial torch in the form of a jersey number (#84) serves as the cherry on top as far as a delayed succession plan goes.