Virginia Tech writer: Detroit Lions’ rookie TE James Mitchell is a ‘solid overall player’

While we’ve gotten first impressions of many 2022 Detroit Lions draft picks, one remains relatively elusive thus far. Former Virginia Tech tight end James Mitchell, selected by the Lions in the fifth round, remains a gift unwrapped under the NFL Draft tree. Due to a torn ACL suffered last September, Mitchell has not participated in rookie minicamp nor organized team activities. We didn’t get to see him test at the NFL Combine, and even his college tape is limited, with just 20 total games started in his Hokies career.

So we attempted to get to know Mitchell a little better by talking someone who covered his career for the past four seasons. In our ongoing podcast series Getting to Know a Lions Draft Pick, we welcomed Virginia Tech beat writer for The Athletic Andy Bitter to the show, and pepper him with questions about Mitchell for 30 minutes straight.

How was Mitchell able to average a whopping 16.1 yards per catch in his college career? Why did he have just 52 total catches as a Hokie How is he as a blocker? How integral of an offensive weapon was his at Virginia Tech, and how big of a prospect would he have been if not for the early ACL injury in 2021?

Bitter answers those questions and much, much more in this week’s episode of First Byte.

Check it out below.

If you’ve missed any of our past podcast series of Lions rookies, catch up on them here:

• LB Malcolm Rodriguez
• EDGE James Houston
• CB Chase Lucas

You can catch these podcast—and all of the other shows on our PODcast feed, including our Spotify Live Q&As by subscribing to us on your favorite platform, including: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or iHeartRadio.