Gavin
Bartholomew.
Gavin
Bartholomew.
Pittsburgh· 6'5"· 246 lb· 4.70s 40
"A consistent and tenacious in-line blocker who elevates the run game, Bartholomew offers a high floor as a foundational Y-tight end with surprisingly sticky hands."Pre-draft read
A true in-line Y with a blue-collar identity, Bartholomew lined up attached to the formation on nearly every snap at Pitt and built his tape around contact. He fires off low, works his hands inside the breastplate and sustains through the whistle on duo and gap concepts, and is comfortable being asked to wham or log an edge defender.
As a receiver he is a big-frame target rather than a separator, winning on box-outs, stick routes and seam benders where his catch radius and strong hands do the work. He tracks the deep ball better than his timed speed suggests and has a real big-play strain — a 60-yard score against Cincinnati, a hurdling catch-and-run at Tennessee — but the burst to stress a middle-of-field defender is not there.
Gap/duo-based run game out of 12 and 13 personnel that asks the Y to block first and win short-area targets second
Year 1: TE3 who earns snaps in heavy personnel and on core special teams. Ceiling: dependable TE2 who plays 350-450 snaps as the run-game closer and red-zone box-out target.
A spread 11-personnel offense that detaches its tight end and asks him to win one-on-one from the slot against nickel corners and rangy safeties.
Best value comes attached and moving downhill — the further he is from the formation, the smaller his edge becomes.
Gavin Bartholomew 2024 Regular Season Highlights | Pitt Tight End
Senior-year reel: in-line blocking reps, seam work and short-area targets.
Gavin Bartholomew 2025 NFL Draft Tape | Pitt TE
Cut-up draft tape showing hand placement in the run game and contested catches.
Pitt TE Gavin Bartholomew Hurdle TD vs Tennessee
2022 catch-and-run touchdown with the hurdle finish — his signature big play.
Bartholomew is the kind of tight end evaluators quietly like more than the box score does: a four-year starter, team captain and three-time honorable mention All-ACC player who never left the field for personnel reasons. He is a genuine in-line blocker first, a functional move piece second, and the traits that made him a plus college player — hand placement, sustain, ball security, availability — travel cleanly.
The production tells the story of a program-anchor role rather than a featured one. Fifty games, 41 starts, 105 catches for 1,257 yards and 11 touchdowns across four years, with his best receiving efficiency coming in an injury-shortened 2023 at 18.1 yards per catch. His 2024 senior line — a career-high 38 receptions but only 322 yards — reflects how Pitt used him: underneath, on the move, and inside the numbers.
The board treated him as a Day 3 blocking specialist with backup receiving upside, and the 4.70 forty at the Combine confirmed the ceiling most had already assigned. Minnesota's call at 202 was a value one for a room that already had T.J. Hockenson and Josh Oliver — a developmental third body who could survive on special teams and heavy personnel while learning behind two established players.
- 01
In-line blocking base
Fires low off the ball, lands his hands inside and sustains through the rep on duo and gap runs against ACC edge defenders.
- 02
Hand strength at the catch point
Plucks away from his frame and finishes contested grabs over the middle without letting the ball into his chest.
- 03
Alignment versatility
Logged real reps attached, in the wing, as a wham blocker and split out, and Pitt trusted him in every run-game role.
- 04
Availability and durability profile
Played in 50 games with 41 starts over four seasons and was never a rotational piece for performance reasons.
- 05
Captain-level makeup
Voted a team captain as a senior and consistently praised for practice habits, meeting-room command and blocking effort.
- 01
Separation ceiling
A 4.70 forty shows up on tape as a receiver who wins on size and body position rather than by creating space on breaks.
- 02
Route nuance
Stems are upright and predictable on option and out-breaking routes, so man coverage can sit on his releases at the top of the stem.
- 03
Yards after catch
Rarely makes the first defender miss in space and drops his pads instead of accelerating once the ball is secured.
- 04
Volume production never matched the role
Never cleared 400 receiving yards in a season despite starting nearly every game of his career.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.70sp50
- Vertical
- —in
- Broad jump
- —in
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- —rep
| Yr | Team | G | Rec | Yds | TD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Pittsburgh | 13 | 28 | 326 | 4 |
| 2022 | Pittsburgh | 13 | 21 | 283 | 2 |
| 2023 | Pittsburgh | 10 | 18 | 326 | 1 |
| 2024 | Pittsburgh | 13 | 38 | 322 | 4 |
| Career | — | 49 | 105 | 1257 | 11 |
Season splits per Sports Reference/CFB data sum exactly to 105-1,257-11. The Vikings and Pitt bios list 50 games played with 41 starts; the 49-game figure reflects the statistical game log.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
- Eli HolsteinQB18%
- Julian DuggerQB15%
- Desmond ReidRB10%
#12 of 19 tracked contributors · Production leaned on volume · Offense explosiveness 1.35 (p88) · CFBD — usage x PPA per tracked player
Big-bodied late-round TE who sticks as a heavy-personnel and special teams contributor.
Blocking-first Y who became a genuinely valuable run-game asset with real red-zone utility.
Camp-body tight end who bounces between practice squad and the back of the roster.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
The rookie year never happened. Bartholomew suffered a back injury in August 2025, opened camp on the active PUP list alongside Chaz Chambliss, and spent the entire season on Reserve/PUP without appearing in a game. Minnesota's tight end room stayed set with T.J. Hockenson and Josh Oliver, and undrafted rookie Ben Yurosek — who signed for more guaranteed money than Bartholomew — took the developmental reps that would otherwise have been his. Entering 2026 he is healthy and competing directly with Yurosek for the TE3 job, and the early camp reports have been genuinely positive: multiple contested catches over the middle, including a seam grab against Jamal Adams, and public praise from the staff guiding the team.
The evaluation itself has aged fine; the circumstances have not. Nothing about the pre-draft profile has been disproven, because nothing has been tested. What the lost year cost him is the cheap developmental runway a sixth-round tight end normally gets, and he now has to win a roster spot on merit against a player a year further along in the system.
Data note: Season splits per Sports Reference/CFB data sum exactly to 105-1,257-11. The Vikings and Pitt bios list 50 games played with 41 starts; the 49-game figure reflects the statistical game log.