Ranking the top 5 tight ends in the 2025 NFL Draft: Tyler Warren leads loaded group of prospects

Penn State desperately struggled to find a No. 1 wide receiver in 2024, but even without one, the Nittany Lions made a run to the College Football Playoff semifinal because they had the No. 1 tight end in the entire country. Tyler Warren was one of the biggest stories of the 2024 college football season and after his historic campaign, the Penn State legend will almost certainly be a first-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. 

However, even beyond Warren, the draft is loaded with talented tight ends who could make an impact in the league from Year 1. As the NFL Draft Combine approaches, here’s a look at my top five tight ends that will be on the board as the NFL converges on Green Bay, Wisconsin from April 24 to 26. 

Tyler Warren began to draw comparisons to Rob Gronkowski throughout the 2024 season and while that may sound sacrilegious, it’s not an insane stretch for the 6-foot-6 nearly 260-pound redshirt senior. He’s a remarkable athlete at his size, is a nightmare to bring down because of his physicality, regularly won at the catch point, and can be a reliable lead-blocker in the run game. And that’s just everything he did as a tight end. 

Warren also played wide receiver, running back, quarterback, and just about every position on Penn State’s offense last season. The Mackey Award winner as the nation’s top tight end caught 104 passes for 1,233 yards and eight touchdowns, ran for 218 yards and four scores on 26 carries, and went 3/6 passing for 35 yards and a TD. He became the first tight end since Notre Dame’s Ken McAfee in 1977 to finish top 10 in Heisman Trophy voting. 

If Warren finds the right landing spot (like the Denver Broncos with Sean Payton), with a reliable quarterback, he could be a superstar for years to come in the NFL. Players like Noah Fant and Kyle Pitts have scared teams off of drafting tight ends in the top half of the first round, but after Brock Bowers dominated for the Raiders last season, it wouldn’t be a surprise if Warren cracks the top 10. 

The talented junior tight end was the only redeemable part of a reprehensible Michigan passing game in 2024, hauling in a team-high 56 catches for 582 yards and five touchdowns. While Loveland doesn’t have the same positional versatility as Warren, he filled nearly every different role for Sherrone Moore’s aerial attack last season.

He isolated as the X receiver and was a one-on-one bucket-getter against man coverage on late downs, served as a traditional in-line pressure release valve for his rotating cast of mediocre quarterbacks, found the soft spots in zone coverage from the slot, and before his injury late in the season emerged as a threat on gadget plays, shovel passes, and screens. 

Loveland is a first-round talent who will be a mismatch all over the field, even as a rookie. While he’ll never be revered for his blocking, the bigger concern about his physicality is with the ball in his hands. At 6-foot-5 and 245 pounds, Loveland was too often brought down by the first defender and finished the year with just three forced missed tackles and only 5.2 yards after the catch per reception (compared to Warren’s 19 MTF and 6.7 yac/rec). 

Loveland would have been much more productive in his final collegiate season if he played on a better offense. He will win in the NFL with his athletic frame and smooth strides, which help him create separation over the middle of the field. 

If you’re interested in a more traditional inline tight end there are quite a few viable options in this draft; Texas’s Gunnar Helm, Oregon’s Terrance Ferguson, Iowa’s Luke Lachey, and LSU’s Mason Taylor. Of that group, Taylor has the second-highest pass-blocking rate, but also the highest percentage of snaps in the slot and he is the most dynamic pass-catcher. 

Taylor has excellent hands and is a physical runner after the catch, though not the most prolific producer. His large catch radius will make him very quarterback friendly and his willingness as a blocker will endear him to the coaching staff. 

While he’s not a road grader who’s going to leave defensive ends and linebackers on their backside, Taylor rarely has poor reps as a blocker and his rock-solid nature will keep him on the field for plenty of snaps as a rookie. He’s a very safe bet to be a solid player for many seasons, but it’s unclear how high the upside is for the LSU product. 

Everything about the Miami offense in 2024 was explosive and that includes the tight end. Part of a loaded unit, Arroyo was not quite as prolific as other tight ends in the class, but when the ball did come the way of this 6-foot-4 245-pound playmaker, he made it count. Arroyo averaged 16.9 yards per reception and hauled in eight of 15 targets over 20 yards downfield for 255 yards and three touchdowns. His breakaway speed is rare at his size both before and after the catch.

Statistically, Arroyo’s profile isn’t favorable against man coverage, averaging 0.81 yards per route run, but he was a force against zone -- up to 2.27 Y/RR with nearly an 80% reception percentage and over 20 yards a catch. He needs to polish his route-running to create more space one-on-one, but he has the size to win contested catch opportunities, especially if he gets matched up with a smaller defender in the slot. 

There is still work to do for Arroyo to maximize his athletic potential, but if I were a team that needed vertical pop on offense, I’d take that chance in the second or early third round. 

Fannin has two obvious limiting factors that will continue to push him down draft boards, his size and his school. At 6-foot-4, Fanin has an excellent frame but at 230 pounds, he’s yet to fill it out. As a vertical threat with impressive run-after-the-catch ability, there is a realistic concern that as he adds weight, he’ll sacrifice explosiveness. And, at Bowling Green, Fannin was just playing most of his career against lesser competition than the other tight ends in the 2025 draft class. 

Still, Fannin’s numbers are eye-popping. In 2024, the junior caught 117 passes for 1,555 yards and 10 touchdowns and actually split first-team All-American honors with Warren between the different voting bodies. While plenty of that production came against MAC opponents, Fannin’s performances against Penn State and Texas A&M early in the year carry a ton of weight in his draft evaluation. 

Fannin caught 11 passes for 137 yards and a touchdown against the Nittany Lions and finished with eight grabs for 145 yards and another score against the Aggies two weeks later. He has impressive speed and is comfortable making grabs up the seam with defenders closing in, or tracking the ball over his shoulder on vertical routes. His size may force play-callers to get creative with his usage as an H-back or even just a traditional fullback at times, but his presence on the field will create constant conflict for safeties and linebackers in coverage.