James
Mitchell.
James
Mitchell.
Virginia Tech· 6'4"· 249 lb
Mitchell is a 6-foot-4, 249-pound tight end whose value lives in the passing game. He averaged 17.2 yards a catch as a sophomore and 16.7 as a junior, numbers that describe a player used down the seam rather than as a checkdown.
The athleticism is real and it comes from a multi-sport background — he was dunking a basketball in middle school. He tracks the ball naturally, adjusts to throws outside his frame and has the catch radius for one-handed grabs in traffic. As a blocker he is willing and technically sound at the point of attack, but at 249 pounds with eighteen bench reps he lacks the anchor to move a defensive end on his own. The route tree is limited: seams, crossers and play-action leaks.
A play-action offense that flexes him away from the formation and attacks the middle of the field with seam routes off run fakes.
Year 1: TE2 in two-tight-end packages, used as a vertical option. Ceiling: starting move tight end in a play-action passing game.
A run-first system that keeps him inline and asks him to seal edge defenders on down blocks every snap.
The yards per catch is the whole case; anything that hides it wastes him.
James Mitchell NFL Draft Tape | Virginia Tech TE
Full pre-draft cut-up of his Virginia Tech work as a receiving tight end.
Virginia Tech TE James Mitchell Has First 100-Yard Game
Single-game footage from his most productive college outing.
Every James Mitchell Rookie Season Touchdown
His rookie-year scoring plays with Detroit.
Mitchell grew up in Big Stone Gap, Virginia, the son of a pastor whose mother played college basketball at Brown. He picked Virginia Tech over Georgia, Duke and Clemson and stayed in state for all four years.
The trajectory was steadily upward until it broke. He played thirteen games as a freshman in 2018 without a catch, mostly on special teams, then took over as a starter in 2019 with 21 receptions for 361 yards and two touchdowns, adding five carries and four rushing scores. The 2020 season was his best: 26 catches for 435 yards and four touchdowns in ten games, along with four punt returns. His coaches and teammates nicknamed him The Governor that year. He weighed entering the 2021 draft, chose to return, made the preseason All-ACC team and the Mackey Award watch list — then suffered a season-ending injury in the second game of his senior year with five catches for 42 yards on his ledger.
That left teams evaluating a player with 52 career receptions and one lost season. Detroit took him 177th overall betting on the receiving traits and the medical clearing.
- 01
Yards per catch
17.2 as a sophomore and 16.7 as a junior, evidence of a tight end who genuinely threatens the seam.
- 02
Catch radius
extends outside his frame and finishes contested grabs, with a one-handed catch that made the ACC highlight rounds.
- 03
Athletic background
a multi-sport athlete who dunked a basketball in middle school, and it shows in how he tracks the ball.
- 04
Red zone production
seven receiving and five rushing touchdowns in college despite never topping 26 catches in a season.
- 05
Willing blocker
takes on defensive ends with sound technique and effort rather than avoiding contact in the run game.
- 01
Medical
a season-ending injury in the second game of his senior year removed the year that was supposed to prove the leap.
- 02
Play strength as a blocker
eighteen bench reps at 249 pounds means he cannot move a defensive end off the spot on his own.
- 03
Production volume
only 52 career receptions across four college seasons, a thin sample for projecting him as a starting NFL tight end.
- 04
Route tree
wins on seams, crossers and play-action leaks, without the variety of breaks to separate at every level.
| Yr | Team | G | Rec | Yds | TD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Virginia Tech | 13 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2019 | Virginia Tech | 13 | 21 | 361 | 2 |
| 2020 | Virginia Tech | 10 | 26 | 435 | 4 |
| 2021 | Virginia Tech | 2 | 5 | 42 | 1 |
| Career | — | 38 | 52 | 838 | 7 |
Receiving lines come from the Sports-Reference log with bowl games included in 2018, 2019 and 2021, and the seasons sum exactly to the career row: 52 receptions, 838 yards and seven receiving touchdowns across 38 games. The 2018 zeros are verified — he appeared in thirteen games as a freshman without a target. cfbstats independently confirms the 2020 season at 26 catches for 435 yards. He also carried the ball seven times for nine yards with five rushing touchdowns and returned four punts for 25 yards in 2020; those are omitted from the receiving table rather than folded in.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Athletic flex tight end who flashes early and then cycles through rosters without sustained volume.
Mid-round receiving tight end who carves out a real rotational role in a play-action offense.
Late-round tight end whose snaps stay limited behind established starters year after year.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
The rookie year was the peak. Mitchell caught his first NFL pass, a fourteen-yarder from Jared Goff, in Week 8 against Miami, then scored a three-yard touchdown against Green Bay on November 6. He appeared in fourteen games and finished with eleven catches for 113 yards and a touchdown.
It never grew. Detroit waived him on August 27, 2024, and re-signed him to the practice squad. He signed a reserve/future contract with Carolina on January 21, 2025, re-signed there on a one-year deal in March 2026 and was released at final cuts on August 30, then joined the Dallas practice squad on September 3, 2026. Through the 2025 season the career line read sixteen receptions, 169 yards and one touchdown. The receiving traits that made him a draftable prospect never got enough targets to matter, and without the blocking strength to hold a roster spot on that side of the ball, he became a player teams keep in reserve rather than on the field.