Rookie Elijah Arroyo predicted to have big role for Seahawks even if not TE1

The Seattle Seahawks entered the 2025 NFL draft with 10 selections, and wound up drafting 11 players. Nine of their picks were on the offensive side of the ball. With their second choice in Round 2, general manager John Schneider gave new starting quarterback Sam Darnold another weapon, who happens to be coming off his best collegiate season.

John Boyle of Seahawks.com recently fielded questions on the site’s “mailbag,” and one centered around the team’s 2025 rookie class. With the assumption that guard Grey Zabel already has a starting job, he was asked what other rookies could be opening week starters, and who those players would replace. One of his replies centered around the second of Schneider’s second-round pick in April.

“While tight end Elijah Arroyo might not be considered the No. 1 tight end in his first season, the Seahawks will use enough multiple tight end sets that he could very well still have a big role.”

In his first three seasons at the University of Miami, Arroyo played in a total of 23 games—missing significant time in 2022 and ’23—and caught just 11 passes for 163 yards and one touchdown. This past year, the promising prospect amassed 35 receptions for 590 yards (16.9 average) and seven scores in 13 outings.

Yes, the Seahawks still have six-year pro Noah Fant, who hasn’t quite been the presence in Denver that he was in Seattle. In three seasons with the ‘Hawks, he’s totaled 130 receptions for 1,400 and five TDs. That’s quite a falloff from his days with the Broncos, where he amassed 170 catches for 1,905 and 10 touchdowns in three years with the club.

An Arroyo/Fant combination in coordinator Klint Kubiak’s system could give the Seahawks a dimension on offense they haven’t had in recent seasons.