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Seahawks rookie tells Kay Adams about Klint Kubiak's bold vision for him
Miami Hurricanes tight end Elijah Arroyo runs with the football against Bethune Cookman Wildcats safety Jaquan Jackson. Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

If there's one thing Seattle Seahawks fans can count on with new offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak, it's that he'll involve tight ends heavily in his scheme.

Employing a West Coast offense, Kubiak naturally loves his versatile tight ends. As the San Francisco 49ers' passing game coordinator in 2023, he helped star tight end George Kittle go for 1,000 yards and six touchdowns en route to a first-team All-Pro selection. Then as the New Orleans Saints' offensive coordinator in 2024, he helped tight ends Juwan Johnson and Foster Moreau combine for 961 yards and eight touchdowns on an offense ravaged by injuries.

One might assume that Noah Fant is the tight end Kubiak will work most closely with in Seattle, but there's a new player in town who's probably an even better fit. That would be Elijah Arroyo, a second-round pick out of Miami who had 35 receptions for 590 yards and seven touchdowns in his final collegiate season.

A strong pass-catching tight end like Arroyo will be right at home in Kubiak's offense, and as he revealed in an interview with Kay Adams, the veteran coach is already dreaming of the ways to use him.

"He's been telling me, you know, he's going to challenge me," Arroyo said. "He wants to line me up everywhere, he wants to be able to do anything, so he's just going to push me and challenge me mentally. I've got to be ready for it.

Kubiak's vision for Arroyo is very much in line with what head coach Mike Macdonald recently said about the rookie, so it's clear the coaching staff has big plans for him.

"This guy can run an extensive route tree,... To have to account for a tight end body on the field and him also to be able to split out wide, do X receiver type of things, bigger body than we probably have right now on our roster, just provides a ton of value," Macdonald said, per ESPN's Brady Henderson. "And then he's going to throw it in there as an actual tight end in line and be able to kind of create some of those bigger personnel formations is the vision that we have for him. So it's really exciting."

With Fant underwhelming throughout his three years in Seattle, it may not be long until Arroyo takes the starting job for himself.


This article first appeared on Seattle Seahawks on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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