A Travis Kelce Clone: Colts Rookie Bears Striking Resemblance

“He’s an absolute force,” Kelce said Friday, “and you can see why he's got a lot of success early, how he ran with the ball when he was in college. His feel for zones, his ability to go up and make a catch over the top of everybody.

“Just a big, big target out there, man, and I'm excited for his future. But hopefully we can hold him to a few yards this week.”

Fantastic rookie campaign

Most teams haven’t held Warren to a few yards this year, including Atlanta in his last game. The 6-6, 256-pound rookie put up 99 yards on eight catches in the Colts’ 31-25 overtime victory Nov. 9 in Berlin. Among all rookie players, Warren ranks second with 50 receptions and third with 617 receiving yards.

“He does a lot of different things,” Chiefs linebacker Nick Bolton said Wednesday, “from the backfield, on the line, off the ball, coming in at the fullback. Sometimes there's some run plays, he’ll come in at fullback and they pass the ball to him.

“Over routes, deep routes, seven routes. I mean, there's a bit everything for him. So that's gonna be a challenge for us, kind of disrupting the line of scrimmage and make things hard for him.”

Warren, the 14th overall selection in April’s draft out of Penn State, is one of three rookie tight ends in NFL history to register at least 50 receiving yards in seven of his first 10 games, joining Brock Bowers and Keith Jackson.

“Strong hands at the point of attack, first of all,” defensive backs coach Dave Merritt said Thursday. “He can block. I mean, I think he's one of the better blocking tight ends in the league. But this kid is savvy. I mean, he has strong hands at the top of the route. He has a big catch radius.

“And all of a sudden you throw that ball up, it's like throwing up an alley-oop to a basketball player. But I think the kid has a bright future. He's done a nice job.”

Tight ends hurt Chiefs in Buffalo

The Chiefs are hoping to do a nice job against Warren on Sunday (12 p.m. CT, CBS/KCTV, Channel 5, 96.5 The Fan). Like the Colts, Buffalo used a similar attack to beat the Chiefs earlier this month.

Collectively in that 28-21 loss at Buffalo, the Chiefs allowed 141 yards on eight receptions to tight ends. Dalton Kincaid (101 yards and a touchdown on six catches) became the first player to reach 100 on Kansas City since Jerry Jeudy last season (Dec. 15 at Cleveland) – snapping a streak of 14 games.

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