The Seattle Seahawks picked University of Miami tight end Elijah Arroyo on Friday with their second pick of the second round, the 50th overall pick in the 2025 NFL draft. 

Drafted: Second round, 17th pick (50th overall)

Height: 6-5

Weight: 250 pounds

Birthdate: April 5, 2003

Hometown: Frisco, Texas

• Arroyo comes with some medical concerns. He tore his ACL during his sophomore year of college, which limited him to just 11 total games between the 2022 and 2023 seasons, and didn’t run at the NFL combine this spring after suffering another knee injury during the Senior Bowl. Arroyo finally broke through in a healthy redshirt junior season, with 35 catches for 590 yards with seven touchdowns and an average of 16.9 yards per reception to earn second-team All-ACC honors. 
• Arroyo played football as a child while living in Mexico. Arroyo moved from Miami to Mexico with his family when he was 7 years old and moved back to Texas when he was 12, and blossomed soon after into a standout football prospect.
• Arroyo is the first player from Frisco Independence to be drafted into the NFL. One of 12 high schools in the city of Frisco, Independence opened back in 2014. Four players who attended high school in the town have been drafted in the past two years, including Frisco Lone Star alums Jaylan Ford (New Orleans) and Trey Taylor (Las Vegas) in 2024. 

“I’m an elite competitor. You look on film, you know exactly what you’re going to get with me. That’s tremendous effort, and just everything out of me in general. In the pass game, I can stretch the field. I’m basically like a receiver out there. I can run every route in the route tree, and I understand how to get open. I understand zones. I feel like I’m just a great overall tight end.” — Arroyo when asked how he would describe what his top skills are as a tight end.

“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. 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.” — NFL.com