Seattle Seahawks select TE Elijah Arroyo in second round of 2025 NFL Draft

Elijah Arroyo was finally healthy enough to have a breakout season as a redshirt junior this past fall at Miami. He’ll now try to keep that going into his upcoming year at the next level.

Arroyo spent the past four seasons and appeared in 33 games at The ‘U. However, he missed several games in his second and third seasons due to injuries with a torn ACL.

While with the Hurricanes, Arroyo caught 46 passes for 753 yards and eight touchdowns. Essentially all of that came last season as a full-time starter with 35 receptions for 590 yards and seven scores in 2024, which had him first in yards per catch, third in receiving touchdowns, and fourth in receiving yards for the No. 1 offense in the country this past season for Miami at 43.9 points per game.

Coming out of high school, Arroyo, a Frisco, Texas native, played at Independence. He was the No. 149 overall recruit there as a four-star prospect in the 2021 cycle. He also rated as the No. 5 TE in the class and a Top-30 player out of the state. That’s according to the On3 Industry Ranking, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies.

Arroyo was able to show his potential more this last year with his most games played and opportunity in those appearances since his first season in college. He’ll look to do more of the same now that he’ll be in the NFL.

What NFL Draft analysts are saying about Elijah Arroyo

NFL.com’s Lance Zierlein broke down Arroyo’s game ahead of this draft. He did have concerns about that injury history but, if he can continue to get further from that issue in his career while improving aspects of his game like in blocking, he’ll have the skill set to be a useful tight end in the league.

“Arroyo enters the evaluation process with questions to answer after a knee injury took chunks of two seasons from him. He displayed a willingness as both a point-of-attack and move blocker, but his technique and play strength will need upgrading. He’s an average athlete who struggles to beat man coverage but appeared to get faster and more fluid as the 2024 season wore on. He plays with awareness in space and secures throws with sure hands in traffic,” Zierlein wrote. “Arroyo is a move tight end whose medical and athletic testing need to check out to give him a legitimate shot at being a productive pro.”