With the 202nd pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, the Minnesota Vikings took Gavin Bartholomew, a tight end out of Pitt. Teams aren’t necessarily looking to find starters in the sixth round, but they must fill out the depth on their roster. Like with the LB position and Kobe King, whom they took one pick before Bartholomew, the Vikings had a hole in their TE group — they didn’t even have a third TE on their roster before the draft.
However, Bartholomew doesn’t have a free path to the roster. He must beat out undrafted free agents Ben Yurosek from Georgia and Bryson Nesbit from North Carolina. Bartholomew, Yurosek, and Nesbit will compete to fill the departed Johnny Mundt‘s shoes.
Mundt played a significant role for the Vikings last year, with 434 total offensive snaps. While many came during T.J. Hockenson and Josh Oliver‘s absences, Mundt still averaged 14 offensive snaps per game in weeks when Hockenson and Oliver played. He finished the year with 142 yards and a pair of touchdowns on 19 receptions.
Mundt’s departure underscores the need for Minnesota’s new TE3 to play immediately. I kept this in mind when studying Bartholomew’s tape. I watched three of his games: against SMU, Clemson, and Boston College. Let’s dive in and see what he brings to the team.
route running
Bartholomew’s route running was a mixed bag at Pitt. I think he presents a vertical threat, which is not common among tight ends, especially in the sixth round. He has the speed to attack defenses vertically with long strides, and used that on a play like the one below to stretch out the LB’s underneath zone, allowing for a completion on a shallow route.
Bartholomew showed a good understanding of how to run vertical routes. On the play below, he works inside an LB, using his hands to get off of his opponent’s contact, and then stacks him.
That nuance was a positive for Bartholomew as a route runner. The play below shows some detail to his route stem. You can see him directly approach the defender, lean outside to get around him, use his hands to dismiss contact, and then lean his route back vertically before snapping off the route to the corner. That creates good separation at the top of the break and could have meant an open reception by the back pylon if the QB had thrown him the ball.
Bartholomew is a long player, but he can still change direction proficiently. On the play below, he’s attacking the safety vertically again, and you can see that he leans to the outside before breaking, selling his earlier corner route. His sell bumps the safety off the coverage, and Bartholomew is able to break down, turn around, and come back to the ball for the TD. That break might not be the short three steps you’d expect from a strong route runner at receiver to take to come back to the ball, but it’s quick enough to be effective for the bigger-bodied Bartholomew.
It wasn’t all great, though. While he has examples of good weight drop, he must be more consistent in executing it. The play below is a good example because he stays straight upright while trying to run an in-breaking route. However, I think he gets too focused on hand-fighting the defender and doesn’t make the movements he needs to with his lower half to turn effectively.
There are also a couple of examples of Bartholomew struggling to find space in the field. He fails to settle in on the play below against zone, and the LB underneath him makes the INT. To be fair, the throw location could be on the QB, but I would ideally want Bartholomew to stop instead of continuing to move across the formation.
Bartholomew also struggled on the scramble drill below, where he ran himself out of bounds while trying to turn upfield. As a pass catcher, you simply can’t run out of bounds on your own accord, and he must improve his spatial awareness in moments like this.
At the Catch Point/After catch
My biggest concern with Bartholomew is the way he catches the football. He frequently lets the ball into his body. You can see it on his TD catch above, but it’s a consistent issue that has led to drops, like on the play below.
The two primary ways you catch a pass are underhand, like on the play above, or overhand. Bartholomew struggles mightily with underhanded catches. He does a bit better when catching overhand, but still has lapses. The play below is a difficult catch because Bartholomew runs into the defender on his route. The QB throws the ball anyway, and a disoriented Bartholomew tries to clap-attack the ball, which bounces off his head for an INT.
That isn’t necessarily the standard; Bartholomew showed the ability to catch the ball away from his frame. In the Clemson game in particular, he displayed good overhand technique on a curl, made a catch through contact on the sideline, and this diving catch for the TD.
Bartholomew showed the ability to transition from the catch quickly into being a runner. In the play below, he showed deftness in adjusting to the throw outside his frame, followed by a quick transition upfield on the screen. I thought Bartholomew was particularly effective with the ball in his hands. What I like about this run is that he follows his block, cutting inside the WR at first. However, the WR’s block gets defeated, and he has the athletic ability to spin, make the defender miss, and get outside to pick up additional yardage.
Bartholomew regularly showed an understanding of how to run behind blocking. On this shovel pass that he takes for a TD, you can see him follow his lead blocker and cut off the pulling guard’s block for the TD. That’s good blocking and an easy cut for a well-blocked TD. However, combining it with the screen above and a nice play against Clemson, I can see he clearly understands the offensive design.
Blocking
Blocking ability is equally, if not more important than the passing game for a third-string TE. As a blocker, Bartholomew continues to show a good understanding of the offense’s design. Pitt asked him to execute various assignments, whether it was in-line blocking, as an H-back, or a puller.
The play below encapsulates why I think Bartholomew has upside as a blocker with good mental processing. He’s leading as a puller, and as he gets through the hole, he sees that the climbing guard has struggled to reach his second-level block against the LB. Bartholomew puts a shoulder into that player, saving the guard’s block, before coming off and putting himself in good position against the DB who followed him across the formation.
Boston College blew the play up in the backfield, but this is a great space-blocking rep from Bartholomew.
Bartholomew could extend that understanding to blocking ends in the run game. On the play below, he’s up against Donovan Ezeiruaku, a second-round pick in the draft. He turns Ezeiruaku inside and drives him back multiple steps after framing him up. The RB ends up running into a scraping LB. However, that’s an issue with the play design, not Bartholomew’s block, which he executes well.
Pitt also trusted Bartholomew to protect against edge rushers one-on-one, like in the play below. Here, I think Bartholomew has wide hands and has to fight to gain leverage, but he eventually anchors without letting up a pressure on the QB. It’s not a perfect rep, but it shows a technical understanding of how to recover that I don’t think every young TE has.
Bartholomew had other really nice reps as a blocker against SMU and Clemson, but he also won’t immediately hold up against better players in the NFL. His biggest test came against the aforementioned Ezeiruaku, who exploited a big weakness in Bartholomew’s blocking. When Bartholomew winds up to two-hand punch an opponent, he leans too far forward, leaving him susceptible to good hand fighters like Ezeiruaku.
On the play below, Ezeiruaku quickly swims around him and gets in the backfield for the sack.
This also happened in the run game, like on the play below.
Overall, I think Bartholomew displays both willingness and good schematic understanding as a blocker. He showed some technique as a pass protector and consistently plays with good positioning to help create holes in the run game.
However, there are instances where an opponent overpowers him, which becomes an even bigger concern in the NFL. He’s also underdeveloped with his hands, something defenders will be able to exploit to disengage from him and make plays against both the run and pass if he’s asked to block them one-on-one. Still, I think there’s space for Bartholomew to significantly improve his blocking. At a relatively young 22 years old, he can continue to fill out his frame and improve his technique.
Athleticism leads to potential
Gavin Bartholomew has blemishes that would hold him back from immediately becoming a full-time contributor. That statement’s true of almost any sixth-round pick. The good news is that the Vikings aren’t asking him to be. With that context, I’m comfortable starting Bartholomew out as the team’s TE3 in his rookie season.
I think that Bartholomew’s vertical game as a receiver, after-catch ability, and willingness and processing as a blocker combine to make a player you want to get on the field in some situations. There will be stumbles, but Mundt certainly wasn’t perfect either.
What really excites me about Bartholomew is that I think he has all of the tools to ascend into a starting receiver. Athletically, he’s not limited to being a checkdown option like many TEs. He can develop into a true passing-game threat who can attack vertically. He needs to add a few pounds, but from an athletic testing perspective, he’s nearly identical to an all-around star at the TE position that you might recognize:
That should be all you need to know to get excited about Gavin Bartholomew.
