BALTIMORE — Josh Cuevas heard his name called in Pittsburgh on NFL Draft weekend when the Baltimore Ravens selected him in the fifth round with the No. 173 overall pick.
For the Ravens, the pick added one of college football’s more unusual tight end stories to a roster built on versatility. For Cuevas, it was the latest stop in a path that began at FCS Cal Poly, ran through Washington and ended with two seasons in Tuscaloosa.
Ty Simpson, Alabama’s quarterback, said the Crimson Tide leaned on Cuevas because he could be deployed in so many different ways. He described him as someone who can line up and do the work of a tight end while also bringing the kind of receiving threat that separates him from most players at the position.
That evaluation was backed by production. Cuevas became one of Alabama’s most reliable players in 2025, finishing with 53 receptions for 629 yards and five touchdowns in 15 games. Simpson said he thanked Cuevas every day because of how much he meant to the offense, calling him a safety blanket and adding that not many tight ends can act like Travis Kelce and block like George Kittle.
The numbers only tell part of the story. Cuevas began his college career at Cal Poly, redshirted in 2021 and then broke through as a redshirt freshman with 57 catches for 622 yards and six touchdowns, earning All-Big Sky honors. He transferred to Washington, where he played for Kalen DeBoer and caught four passes for 164 yards and a touchdown while helping the Huskies reach the national championship game.
He followed DeBoer again to Alabama, where the fit was immediate enough to make him a central part of the offense over the last two seasons in Tuscaloosa. Alabama also had a larger draft goal hanging over the pick, looking to become the third Crimson Tide tight end selected in the NFL Draft in the last four seasons.
Cuevas’s rise mattered because it was not linear. His senior season of high school was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving him to play only four games before the next stage of his career began. From there, each move pushed him farther from the tidy path most draft prospects follow and closer to the kind of player NFL teams spend years trying to find.
The draft pick capped that climb, but it also left one question in place for Baltimore: how quickly Cuevas can turn the same hybrid skill set that made him valuable at Alabama into something the Ravens can use on Sundays.