Thomas
Fidone.
Thomas
Fidone.
Nebraska· 6'5"· 243 lb· 4.70s 40
"A former elite recruit with vertical seam speed and impressive testing for his size, Fidone's NFL impact hinges on whether he can stay healthy and translate his flashes into consistent receiving production."Pre-draft read
Fidone is a 6-5, 243-pound flex tight end who lined up inline, in the slot and detached in Nebraska's spread passing game, and his defining trait is stride length: once he clears the line he eats grass on seams and crossers. He tracks the ball naturally over either shoulder and plucks away from the frame.
The secondary trait is body control at the catch point rather than power after it. He adjusts to off-target throws and shields defenders on option routes, but he plays high and rarely creates violence as a runner. As a blocker he is clean in protection, yet the run game exposes a frame that still needs weight. The signature is an easy, gliding vertical release from a true Y alignment.
Spread, 11-personnel passing offense that flexes the Y and attacks the middle third with seams, benders and crossers off play-action
Year 1: TE2/TE3 and core special teams, working a limited seam-and-flat package on passing downs. Ceiling: a 55-catch move tight end in a two-TE offense where a blocking Y handles the dirty work.
A gap-scheme, 12-personnel run identity that asks its Y to displace 280-pound edge setters on down blocks and duo — his frame gets moved and the passing value never gets on the field.
Value spikes when paired with an in-line blocking tight end so he can be deployed almost exclusively as a receiver.
Thomas Fidone II | Tight End | 2024 / 2023 Nebraska Highlights
Full two-season cut showing his seam work, catch radius and alignment versatility at Nebraska.
2025 NFL Draft Highlights: Thomas Fidone II | TE | Nebraska
Pre-draft reel focused on vertical releases, off-frame catches and route work from flexed alignments.
Nebraska TE Thomas Fidone hoping for a breakout season in 2024
Feature with practice footage and context on his return from two ACL tears entering 2024.
A former No. 1 overall tight end recruit whose college career became a study in patience, Fidone entered the 2025 class as a movement Y with legitimate receiving upside rather than a finished product. The tools were never the argument: length, hands and the build-up speed to run past second-level defenders in the middle third.
The context matters. Two ACL tears wiped out his first two seasons in Lincoln, and he did not play a meaningful snap until 2023, when he led Nebraska with four touchdown catches. His 2024 was steadier than spectacular — 36 receptions for 373 yards and nine starts on a Mackey watch list — production shaped by a run-first, checkdown-heavy offense that rarely pushed him vertically. Testing confirmed the traits: 4.70 at 243 pounds with a 35 1/2-inch vertical and a 7.01 three-cone. The flags were durability, play strength and a career yards-per-catch number that never matched the athletic profile.
The board treated him as a Day 3 developmental tight end with a top-100 ceiling if the medicals cleared. The Giants, staring at a tight end room in transition behind Theo Johnson, took the swing at 219 — low cost, real upside, no urgency.
- 01
Vertical stride length
clears the intermediate level in a hurry and stresses linebackers up the seam, with the build-up speed to threaten the middle third from a true inline alignment.
- 02
Catch radius
34-inch arms and 10 5/8-inch hands give him a huge window, and he consistently plucks off-frame throws away from his body instead of trapping them.
- 03
Ball tracking
natural over either shoulder on deep crossers and post-corners, adjusting late without losing speed or stumbling through the adjustment.
- 04
Pass protection technique
quiet, clean sets as an inline blocker; he did not surrender a pressure on 79 college pass-blocking snaps across three seasons.
- 05
Alignment flexibility
Nebraska used him inline, flexed and in the slot, and he ran the same route tree from all three without needing the formation tipped.
- 01
Play strength
plays high through contact and gets rerouted by physical linebackers, which caps his effectiveness against press and on tight-window in-breakers.
- 02
Run blocking
willing and assignment-sound but light in the hips, losing ground at the point of attack and struggling to sustain against edge defenders.
- 03
Durability
two ACL tears erased his first two college seasons and a foot injury ended his rookie year, making availability the single biggest bet on the profile.
- 04
Yards after catch
goes down on first contact more often than a 243-pound tight end should, and rarely converts his straight-line speed into broken tackles.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.70sp50
- Vertical
- 35.5inp50
- Broad jump
- 126inp50
- Three-cone
- 7.01sp50
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- —rep
| Yr | Team | G | Rec | Yds | TD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Nebraska | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2023 | Nebraska | 12 | 25 | 260 | 4 |
| 2024 | Nebraska | 13 | 36 | 373 | 0 |
| Career | — | 26 | 61 | 633 | 4 |
Did not appear in a game in 2022 while recovering from a second ACL tear; no 2022 season row exists. Career totals match Nebraska official records (61 receptions, 633 yards, 4 TD).
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Honors
- 2024 John Mackey Award watch list
- Three-time Academic All-Big Ten
- Two-time Tom Osborne Citizenship Team
- No. 1 tight end recruit nationally (2021 class, Rivals and 247Sports)
Traits-first Day 3 tight end who flashes in camp and preseason but never strings together healthy, high-snap seasons.
The realistic best case: a long, reliable seam target who becomes a quarterback's middle-of-the-field answer without ever being a plus blocker.
Athletic developmental tight end who lives on special teams and the practice squad without carving out an offensive role.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Fidone's rookie year in New York was almost entirely a special teams year. He impressed in August, catching eight of nine preseason targets for 39 yards and a touchdown while grading well in pass protection, and that camp made the 53. From there the offense belonged to Theo Johnson and Daniel Bellinger, and Fidone dressed for seven games with his snaps confined to coverage units and one solo tackle. A foot injury put him on injured reserve in mid-November, ending the season before he ever earned a real route tree, and he needed a cleanup procedure in the offseason.
Year two arrives with him on the roster bubble rather than the depth chart, which is the honest read on a seventh-round tight end whose whole case is projection. Nothing about the evaluation has been disproven — the length, the hands and the vertical speed all showed in preseason — but the injury pattern that cost him two college seasons followed him into the league, and availability remains the variable that decides everything. If he stays upright for a full camp, the traits are still starter-adjacent in a two-tight-end scheme. If not, he becomes exactly what a pick at 219 usually is.
Data note: Did not appear in a game in 2022 while recovering from a second ACL tear; no 2022 season row exists. Career totals match Nebraska official records (61 receptions, 633 yards, 4 TD).