WESTFIELD, Ind. – The Colts' 2025 rookie class will hit an important preseason marker on Monday, when Shane Steichen will hold his first full-pads practice of training camp.

Coaches and talent evaluators around the league will tell you padded practices are often separators. There's a different physicality and a different edge to those practices; sometimes rookies adjust to them and sometimes they don't.

But for two Colts rookies who've done some good things to open their first NFL training camp – tight end Tyler Warren and cornerback Justin Walley – there are signs both can handle the challenge of padded practices when those start next week.

Tyler Warren

Warren has been targeted plenty by quarterbacks Anthony Richardson and Daniel Jones over the Colts' first four practices of training camp, and with good reason. He's displayed a good feel for working into open space, and his hands have been fantastic in catching both contested targets and throws away from his body.

He also, and this is a compliment, doesn't move like he's 256 pounds.

"You forget how big he is sometimes," tight ends coach Tom Manning said.

A lot of Warren's game looks and feels natural, like his hands and his feel for space and the way he moves after the snap. But he's much more than just a naturally-gifted player – Warren is committed to his craft and is someone who lives and breathes football, and the way he's carried himself since arriving as a first-round draft pick has quickly earned him the respect of his teammates.

"I give the kid a lot of credit," Manning said. "Everything you heard about him before the draft is that he treated this thing like was a professional in college. I think he's done a great job — certainly there's a learning curve. No. 1, it's a new offense, and No. 2, there's a lot of things that maybe he hasn't been exposed to, and he's been nothing but awesome the entire time. He takes it seriously, he's diligent about his work and in terms of his football knowledge, he's ahead of the game."

The rookie learning curve for tight ends is steep. Not only do you have to learn how to run routes within the structure of an offense, you have to learn how to fit into a run blocking scheme. You have to navigate making contested catches over super-athletic defensive backs or ruggedly-physical linebackers – and have to hold the point of attack against defensive linemen who might weigh 25 or 50 pounds more than you.

It's a position that requires a high football IQ to mentally process a ton of information, and also a high level of physicality to do whatever job is asked on a given play. That's why rookie tight ends often aren't super productive – when the Las Vegas Raiders' Brock Bowers set a new NFL rookie record with 1,194 receiving yards last year, the guy he supplanted at the top of the list was Mike Ditka, whose 1,076 yards stood as the tight end rookie high water mark for 63 yards.

Only three rookie tight ends in NFL history have had double-digit touchdowns (Ditka, Sam LaPorta, Rob Gronkowski) and just 14 have had at least 50 receptions.

There's a long way to go for Warren before Sept. 7's season opener, but the early returns have been positive as he heads into Monday's padded practice.

"When the pads come on, it becomes a different game," Manning said. "For (Warren), I don't think I want to see him do anything special. I'm more excited, probably from my own end, to see him operate with the first time of having pads on and getting to see some of those contested catches — they get a little bit more fun. And then maybe some stuff after the catch, which obviously showed us some good things in college."

Warren, through this training camp ramp-up period, set a strong foundation for himself within the Colts' offense. Stacking good practices is a bigger challenge when the pads come on, but there's plenty of belief within the Colts' organization it's a challenge that won't be too big for Warren.

"He's a young player, and we haven't even seen him in pads, which I think is going to be a real strength of his," offensive coordinator Jim Bob Cooter said. "I think when he gets to play football in pads, the extra elements of his game are really going to come alive.

"Right now, we talk about it every year in this setting – offensive line, running back, tight end – in those physical sort of situations, you don't really get to work every aspect of what you're going to end up doing on Sundays. But here in a few days, we will, and I think Tyler Warren, that's going to really, really help him. I'll hold away from the comparison game, but we're excited about his development. We're excited about the direction he's headed. He's working really hard. We're going to need to keep that going."

Justin Walley

One of the stories of the first week of practice was Walley, the third-round cornerback from Minnesota, getting reps with the first-team defense right from Day 1. But it's not just that Walley earned those snaps – it's that he's already played both outside cornerback and slot cornerback.

That inside-to-outside transition is not necessarily easy to make; you're dealing with different space, physicality and help at each position. Handling both spots requires not only requisite athleticism and toughness, but a high football IQ to grasp the nuances of each position.

And Walley's football intelligence is where defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo began his answer on why the rookie cornerback has been able to manage playing both cornerback positions.

"He's a smart kid," Anarumo said. "He did a number of different things in Minnesota. He's got a good football mind. He's got that skillset where his body type is similar to an inside, outside guy. So, he's got really good quickness along with long speed. I like the ability for him to do both."

Walley, though, is part of a strong competition to be the Colts' No. 3 cornerback behind Moore and veteran Charvarius Ward, who's had one of the most impressive starts to training camp of any player on the roster. And that competition, early in camp, has brought out some fantastic play not only from Walley, but Jaylon Jones and JuJu Brents.

Both Jones and Brents have had a number of pass break-ups so far; Brents has an interception, and he tipped a pass in seven-on-seven to safety Rodney Thomas II for a pick on Saturday. Jones has broken up a pass in each of the Colts' last three practices, and both players are certainly going to keep pushing Walley throughout training camp.

A likely scenario here is the Colts will play all their cornerbacks, either due to attrition or scheme (Anarumo has a history of playing dime defense, with six defensive backs on the field). So far, the Colts' cornerback room has been one of the team's most competitive units in training camp, and whoever emerges as that third guy will have absolutely earned it.

"(Walley) keeps doing good things," Steichen said. "Obviously a rookie, but just really sticky in coverage. Smart player for a rookie. He understands our defense pretty well, but still learning. But he's made a lot of plays, and it's exciting."