There’s more football in Elijah Arroyo’s future…
The 22-year-old Mexican American University of Miami tight end was selected by the Seattle Seahawks in the second round of the 2025 NFL Draft with the No. 50 pick, making him the first Latino selected by a National Football League team this year.
“It feels unreal,” Arroyo said after being selected. “I’m still trying to take it all in. It’s a surreal feeling. I’m blessed.”
Arroyo, who is 6-foot-5, 254 pounds, averaged an impressive 16.9 yards per reception in his final season at Miami, catching 35 passes for 590 yards and seven touchdowns.
That 2024 performance helped Arroyo earn second-team All-ACC honors in a strong final season in which he started all 13 games after being limited to 11 games in his previous two seasons due to injury.
Arroyo was better known as a pass-catching tight end in college, but prides himself on being a versatile and well-rounded tight end.
“I lined up everywhere throughout my college career,” Arroyo said. “Really, everywhere on the field. I feel like that’s where I thrive, just being able to spread out and create mismatches.”
Arroyo later added, “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, I understand how to get open, I understand zones. I feel like I’m a great overall tight end.”
As for his blocking, Arroyo said, “I did a decent amount. I really improved these past couple of years, and there’s still a lot more room for improvement as a far as my in-line blocking. Just learning how to help the offense any way I can.”
While Arroyo was born in Florida, he didn’t spend his entire childhood in the Sunshine State. Because of his father’s job selling timeshares, Arroyo and his family moved to Cancun, Mexico, when he was 7, staying for five years before moving to Frisco, Texas.
“I had just started playing football before I moved down there, so that was my biggest concern as a 7-year-old moving to a different country,” he said. “I asked my mom if they had a football team, and they said yes, they found me a football team. So I was cool with it.”
On playing football in Mexico, Arroyo said, “It was really the same other than being in a different language. You really learn that it’s still the same sport, it’s still football. There’s different ways to learn the game.”
Martinez was a three-year starter, having played two years at Oregon State before transferring to the University of Miami.