Elijah
Arroyo.
Elijah
Arroyo.
Miami (FL)· 6'5"· 250 lb
"An enticing flex seam-stretcher whose game-breaking vertical speed finally materialized in 2024, if his thin but explosive production profile can overcome a concerning medical history."Pre-draft read
Arroyo is a movement tight end who plays most of his snaps detached — slot, wing, or flexed to the boundary — and wins on the vertical stem. He builds speed quickly for 250 pounds, eats the cushion of linebackers and safeties on seams and benders, and tracks the ball over either shoulder without losing stride. His hands are confident away from the frame on fades and back-shoulder throws.
The secondary trait is yards after catch. He is a strider rather than a shake artist, and the long speed shows up on crossers where he outruns pursuit angles. Attached, he blocks willingly but positionally, better on the move than at the point. The signature is straight-line juice from a true Y frame.
Play-action, middle-of-the-field passing game (Shanahan/McVay-tree or Air Raid-influenced spread) that flexes its tight end and hunts seam shots
Year 1: rotational move tight end and vertical package specialist, 30-40% of snaps in 12 and empty personnel. Ceiling: primary receiving tight end with 60-70 catches and a legitimate red-zone and seam-shot role.
A gap-scheme, in-line-first offense that asks its Y to block a 6-technique on early downs and treats the tight end as the sixth lineman — his snaps would collapse to third down only.
Value peaks when paired with a blocking tight end so he never has to survive on the line of scrimmage.
Elijah Arroyo Full 2024 Season Highlights | Miami Tight End
Full junior-season reel: seam shots, red-zone fades and YAC on crossers.
Elijah Arroyo 2024 Regular Season Highlights | Miami Tight End
Regular-season cutups from the 590-yard breakout year in Cam Ward's offense.
Elijah Arroyo corner route at the Senior Bowl
Mobile rep showing the stem speed and late hands that moved his board.
Arroyo is a vertical seam threat first and a tight end second, the kind of flex piece a passing game builds explosive shots around rather than a hand-in-the-dirt Y you leave in to protect. Everything starts with his stride and his ball tracking; he changes the math on middle-of-the-field coverage.
The production file is thin and the medical file is thick. He caught 10 passes across his first two years in Coral Gables, tore up his knee in 2022 and was limited again in 2023, then finally broke out as a junior in 2024 with 35 catches for 590 yards and seven scores in a new offense — 16.9 yards a grab, one of the best per-catch marks of any tight end in the country. He answered the availability question at the Senior Bowl, where he was the best tight end in Mobile all week, then measured in at the Combine without testing because of the knee.
Boards had him as the third or fourth tight end in a deep class, a clean second-round grade with real bust risk attached to the sample size. Seattle took him at 50 to give a rebuilt offense a field-stretching option next to Noah Fant, betting the traits and the one healthy year were the truth.
- 01
Vertical speed
builds to top gear in a hurry for 250 pounds and runs past linebackers and box safeties on seams, benders and deep overs.
- 02
Ball tracking
natural over either shoulder on downfield throws, adjusts late to back-shoulder and fade balls without breaking stride.
- 03
Catch radius
long frame and strong hands away from the body let him pluck outside the numbers and win above the rim in the red zone.
- 04
YAC as a strider
dangerous on crossers and leaks where he can turn upfield and outrun pursuit angles rather than needing to make men miss.
- 05
Alignment flexibility
comfortable detached in the slot, at the wing, or flexed wide, which lets an offense create matchups without substituting.
- 01
Injury history
a serious knee injury in 2022 and a limited 2023 mean one healthy, productive college season on the résumé at age 22.
- 02
Thin production sample
46 career catches, 35 of them in one year, so projections lean heavily on traits over accumulated tape.
- 03
Point-of-attack blocking
willing but positional in-line, gets stalemated by heavy ends and loses leverage when he plays too tall.
- 04
Route nuance underneath
stems and breaks lack detail in the short game, and he can round off option routes against zone triggers.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
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- Vertical
- —in
- Broad jump
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- Three-cone
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- Shuttle
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- Bench
- 22repp50
| Yr | Team | G | Rec | Yds | TD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Miami | 12 | 5 | 86 | 1 |
| 2022 | Miami | 5 | 5 | 66 | 0 |
| 2023 | Miami | 6 | 1 | 11 | 0 |
| 2024 | Miami | 13 | 35 | 590 | 7 |
| Career | — | 36 | 46 | 753 | 8 |
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
- Cameron WardQB29%
- Xavier RestrepoWR12%
- Damien MartinezRB7%
#6 of 20 tracked contributors · Produced well above his snap share · Offense explosiveness 1.35 (p89) · CFBD — usage x PPA per tracked player
Athletic flex Y who produces on seams and crossers without ever becoming a volume target or a real blocker.
Detached matchup weapon whose speed and tracking made him a top-five receiving tight end when available.
Traits tight end whose availability and blocking limits keep him in a part-time rotational role.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Seattle used him exactly as advertised as a rookie in 2025, rotating him with Noah Fant and AJ Barner rather than handing him the job, and leaning on him as the flex option in three-tight-end and empty looks. The volume stayed modest — 15 catches for 179 yards and a touchdown across 13 games — but the role grew as the season went on, and he was on the field for the biggest snaps of Seattle's championship run.
The honest read a year in: the traits were real and the availability question is still open. He has not yet been asked to carry a target share, and the blocking still keeps him off the field on early downs, which caps snaps in a room where Fant and Barner both do things he does not. But the vertical element showed up in flashes that no other Seahawks tight end can produce, and a Super Bowl ring in year one bought him runway. Whether pick 50 was a bargain or a reach depends entirely on what year two looks like with a real target load.