Don Warren is retiring… again.
Warren for the last two seasons has been a senior scout for Washington. He had made his wishes known; thus his retirement was expected this offseason following the 2022 Draft.
In his playing days, Warren played in 4 Super Bowls with Washington, winning three (Super Bowls XVII, XXII, XXVI).
Warren, a tight end at San Diego State, was drafted by Redskins general manager Bobby Beathard in the 4th round (103 overall) in the 1979 NFL draft.
Warren was a consistent tough guy for Washington for 14 seasons (1979-1992) the primary tight end starter each season. It was no secret Joe Gibbs (who also coached at San Diego State before Warren) absolutely loved the commitment and contribution of Warren in his 2 tight end, 1 running back offense.
Don Warren was the epitome of the Joe Gibbs teams. He showed up to work each day, played hard, not worrying about drawing attention to himself. In fact, Warren in his 193 games started 181 yet only caught 244 pass receptions, spending most of his time blocking in both the running and passing game.
Washington fans will also recall the Joe Gibbs offense often using Warren to come in motion and then throw a mean trap block on a defensive tackle for good gains, supplementing Washington’s often-effective Counter-Trey running play.
Warren’s 244 receptions totaled 2,536 yards (10.4 ypr) for 7 touchdowns. Here is a Warren touchdown reception off of a play-action fake to John Riggins in the 1982 playoff 21-7 win over Minnesota at RFK Stadium.
Older Washington fans recall that the 1979 draft was a good draft for Beathard though he only had opportunity to choose five players in the 12 rounds.
Three of Beathard’s mere five selections were quite successful: Warren (4R, 103), Rich Milot (7R, 182) a fiery LB from Penn State and Monte Coleman (11R, 289) an athletic LB from Central Arkansas. Milot wore Burgundy and Gold for nine seasons (1979-87) and Coleman was a special teams Ace and coverage linebacker for an amazing 16 seasons (1979-94).