Seahawks Film Breakdown: How will Elijah Arroyo be used in the Seahawks offense?

Arroyo is the first tight end drafted by the Seahawks in the first or second round since 2008.

After selecting Grey Zabel in the first round and moving up to get Nick Emmanwori in the second, the Seattle Seahawks still had one more Day 2 pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. The pick was not another offensive lineman or defensive lineman. A trade down was even considered to try to recover something after the trade-up, but that was not what happened either. The pick was TE Elijah Arroyo, from Miami.

What is the impact of the pick? Where will he play? Can he contribute as a rookie?

We will discuss all of this in this article.

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Who is Elijah Arroyo?

Arroyo was born in Orlando, but due to his father’s work he had to move to Mexico when he was six years old. He had the opportunity to play American Football in Mexico, playing as a QB, LB and RB. At age 12, he returned to the United States, where he played as a QB in his freshman year (note that he is left-handed). In his sophomore year, he transitioned to receiver and received a lot of attention.

He was a four-star prospect and was the second highest-ranked TE in Texas, behind only Ja’Tavion Sanders (who is now with the Carolina Panthers). He received offers from UConn, Alabama, Georgia, Michigan, Penn State, Texas, Texas A&M, SMU and USC. The TE chose to play for Miami, a university where he had watched games with his father and grandfather.

Arroyo played his freshman season, was injured the next two years and then returned for a fantastic season in 2024. He had 35 receptions for 590 yards and 7 touchdowns, which earned him Second Team All-ACC honors.

His mentality of fighting for every snap is something incredible.

Not afraid to sacrifice his body in blocking.

Was he the best option?

According to ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler, many teams had Arroyo as a top-20-25 player in the draft. The problem was the injuries the player had (we’ll talk about that later) that made some teams give up on his selection.

Let’s look at John Schneider’s history of drafting TEs:

• 2010, Anthony McCoy, 6th round;
• 2013, Luke Willson, 5th round;
• 2016, Nick Vannett, 3rd round;
• 2018, Will Dissly, 4th round;
• 2020, Colby Parkinson, 4th round;
• 2020, Stephen Sullivan, 7th (he was announced as a WR, returned to TE, which was his position in his final season at LSU, and ended up only having playing time as an EDGE, in Seattle);
• 2024, AJ Barner, 4th round;

So, in addition to being the highest TE drafted by John, Arroyo is the highest TE drafted by Seattle since John Carlson was drafted in the second round in 2008 at 38th overall. In franchise history, only two other TEs have been drafted higher than Arroyo. One of them is Jerramy Stevens, in the first round of the 2002 Draft at 28th overall. And the other was Christian Fauria, in the second round in the 1995 Draft, pick 39th overall.

No two objects can occupy the same space at the same time

This is the definition of the principle of impenetrability. Watching Arroyo’s tape, it is undeniable that he basically occupies the same role as Noah Fant. An athletic TE, a vertical threat, specialized in the slot and who needs to improve in blocking.

Fant, Arroyo and AJ Barner could be the team’s TE trio. However, Arroyo and Fant are redundant, especially with Fant’s cap hit of $13,410,000. Either Seattle doesn’t see it that way (which would be a mistake, to me) or the team is willing to end Fant’s time as a Seattle Seahawk. I believe that the cut will be inevitable, but it would still be possible to dream of a trade. Fant is a first-round pick and there are always those who like to bet on his pedigree.

A good candidate would be the Jaguars. Currently the group has only: Brenton Strange, Johnny Mundt and Hunter Long. The Dolphins have Jonnu Smith, Julian Hill and Pharaoh Brown. It is worth remembering that Arroyo has a history of injuries, and perhaps that is why Seattle wants to keep Noah Fant.

What are the concerns about the pick?

He suffered an ACL injury in his left knee during his Sophomore season, causing him to miss 8 games. The following year he missed 8 games again while still recovering from the same injury. In 4 years (only 2 of which he actually played) he has less than 50 receptions (46) and 753 yards.

Seattle drafted two other players with injury problems. DE Rylie Mills and WR Tory Horton, both fifth-round picks, are concerns for the start of the season. However, both had visits with the Seahawks during the pre-draft. That way, the Seahawks could test them to get a true sense of the problem, and that is how they chose both of them.

At least as of this writing, no information has been released about Arroyo having visited the team in this process leading up to the Draft. Did the Seahawks invest in a guy they didn’t “test” enough?

How will the Seahawks use Arroyo?

Schneider said some Seahawks coaches see Elijah Arroyo as a potential X receiver. “Full route tree, super explosive. This guy is special.”

Arroyo definitely looks like a WR/TE hybrid and that’s how they plan to use him. He has enough speed to be a vertical threat. He waits for the vertical threat and when he opens his hips to make the deep, Arroyo makes the cut.

Elijah Arroyo lined up in the slot on 51.6% of snaps and in-line on 39.4%. He had 16.9 yards per reception in 2024 and converted the line for a gain on 71.4% of his receptions. Fluid athlete with a long wingspan who is a mismatch in the MOF. Ranked 49th overall by consensus.

Arroyo was one of eight TEs in the country to average more than 8 YAC per reception and more than 1.6 yards per route run last season.

The only NFL players who have posted a faster time than Elijah Arroyo in Miami in 2024, according to NextGenStats:

• KaVontae Turpin
• Brian Thomas Jr.
• Jahmyr Gibbs
• Saquon Barkley
• Nico Collins
• James Cook

Coming in-line, he has a good change of direction to leave defenders on the ground with his sudden cut.

He is used in motion to have a free release and can catch the long pass.

His speed allows him to be a weapon on screen for TE, which is not something that is common, but should be in Klint Kubiak’s playbook.

High and low blocking work

Miami used Arroyo in several ways in blocking, even though this is not a strong point of his game.

Here we have him as a receiver blocking for the screen. Put him against smaller DBs and his physicality shows.

In this play we have him going up to the second level after a good block. Excellent blocking work in zone.

This was one of the ways he was used the most. Split-zone requires a player on the other side of the formation to come and block the DE. Normally, this is the TE’s role. Arroyo is physical and strong, but he needs to improve his technique, so we have good snaps and some very bad snaps from him in this regard.

As mentioned, Arroyo’s problem with blocking is not a question of effort, but rather of technique. Here he lowers his head and loses contact.

Even with these technical issues, he fights until the end of the snap.

He almost misses the target but his leverage and willpower to fight until the end make him win the block.

He won’t be your main blocker, but he could be the TE2 like Juwan Johnson did on Kubiak’s Saints.

Final Thoughts

I confess that Arroyo wasn’t on my first list of TE targets. I’ve always looked for blocking ability as a differentiator in prospects. However, the Seahawks seemed to be more interested in someone similar to Juwan Johnson (the team had interest in him in the FA); a guy who isn’t an exceptional blocker, but who can contribute in packages with two TEs. This also shows that the team is satisfied/confident with what AJ Barner can do in terms of blocking.

For this pick to “earn more points” it needs to be finalized by trading Noah Fant. If he stays healthy, I have a lot more confidence in what Arroyo can do in Kubiak’s scheme than the veteran.