CFB Zeitgeist Score
45
Mid-pack in the position cohort. Carried by yards / catch at the 94th percentile.
Malachi Thomas
Below the discourse floor — the honest stats-only state.
192 REC YDS · 13 REC · 2 REC TD
2026 Outlook
Returning to Pittsburgh for 2026
2026 Depth chart
Projected starter
Tight end · Pittsburgh
Returning around him
- 75% of 2024 offensive production back (Strong continuity)
- 1 Pittsburgh player drafted to NFL
- Transfer portal: -5 net (16 in / 21 out)
2026 Award watch
No preseason watch lists yet (most drop June 15 – July 15)
Pittsburgh · Last season: 8-5 (AP #24) · Talent rank #56 · 2026 recruiting class #51
TE · PITTSBURGH · ACC
Malachi Thomas
- 2
- #82
- 6-4 | 240 lb
- Thomasville, GA
Heisman Heat
#1230
<1% win probability
Fan Belief
Awaiting
Player-specific FI not yet ingested. Falls back to team mood below.
Respect Gap
Awaiting
Coming online with player-level FI.
Reality Gap
Awaiting
Coming online with player-level FI.
ACCOLADE PROBABILITY
Heisman
<1%
TOP TE AWARD
Mackey
—
CONSENSUS
All-American
—
Player Standing · 17 rungs
Tier 2 · StarterR07 · Impact starter
Impact starter. Producing measurable value above replacement.
Not on team2-deepStarterRecognizedEliteApex
Development Trajectory · receiving yards
2024–2025+773%
Up 773% from first season to most-recent.
Career Arc
HS
Recruit
—
CFB
College
Pittsburgh
NFL
NFL Draft
—
Identity & Role
The durable bio layer: position, size, hometown, and roster role.
Recruiting Pedigree
How big the prospect was before college, and whether the later career arc beat that expectation.
| Class | Profile | Context |
|---|---|---|
| No recruiting profile is on file for this player. | ||
Transfer Arc
Portal movement changes role, context, and perception. This keeps that path in one place.
| Season | Move | Context |
|---|---|---|
| No transfer portal moves on file for this player. | ||
Heisman Lens · 2024 Season · Final
Where the player landed at the end of the listed season — final nowcast rank, win/finalist/ballot probabilities, and the cleanest official Heisman placement on file.
HIGH CONFIDENCE· through week 16Heisman Futures
Not yet listed on major futures markets.
No achievements unlocked yet this season.
Selector Grid · 2025
AP—
FWAA—
AFCA—
WCFF—
SN—
SI—
Selector recognition fills in once the major honors lists (AP, FWAA, AFCA, Walter Camp, Sporting News, SI) are scraped and ingested.
Today’s Hot-Take
The Hot-Take engine fires when this player’s percentile profile crosses a defensible threshold (top 10% in a cohort, 100+ snap sample). When it’s quiet, the model is honoring its “must be defensible” rule.
Anti-Take
PENDINGThe contrarian read fires when the rules-engine detects a stat that complicates the Hot-Take. Quiet here means the model hasn’t found a defensible counter yet — not that one doesn’t exist.
The Room on Malachi Thomas
Fan sentiment · Awaiting signal
The Room reads fan conversation around a player — who’s talking, what they believe, and how that shifts. It publishes once weekly volume rebuilds; for most players that’s in-season, when game-week chatter spikes.
Cohort divergence map
Cohort divergence reads how different fanbases talk about this player. Returns once weekly mentions clear the publish floor.
Rival Radar
How rival fanbases talk about Malachi Thomas
No rival-bucket mentions in the current season.
Signature Story
Awaiting candidate metric
He hasn't written his page yet — we'll start filling it in when there are enough snaps to rank against his peers.
Signature Moment
No signature moment on the ledger yet.
Returns once this player puts together a multi-game body of work — single-game flashes alone don't clear the bar.
Season Pace · Projection
Where the receiving totals stand
Through 9g
192Rec yards
13Receptions
2Rec TDs
Per game
21.3Rec yards
1Receptions
0Rec TDs
Projected (13g)
277.3Rec yards
19Receptions
3Rec TDs
To hit 700-yard receiver (currently 192): needs 127/game over remaining 4.
To hit 1,000-yard receiver (currently 192): needs 202/game over remaining 4.
To hit 60-catch season (currently 13): needs 11.8/game over remaining 4.
To hit 80-catch season (currently 13): needs 16.8/game over remaining 4.
To hit 8 receiving TDs (currently 2): needs 1.5/game over remaining 4.
To hit 10 receiving TDs (currently 2): needs 2/game over remaining 4.
What made this player interesting
The fast read on the thing that makes this player more than a generic stat line.
Malachi Thomas's story is about how role and output meet each other. For Pittsburgh, the card already shows enough current-season production to explain why he is on the serious-player board, and the next layer is determining whether the profile is just very good or actually distinctive.
2025 Season · Final
Traditional stats first. Advanced context underneath.
Last season
TE season snapshot
2025 season snapshot | final
2025 season snapshot | finalData: CFBD player stats + local Heisman modelPeer context: same position + same level
Player identity What kind of player is this?
30-second read
What kind of player is this?
Big-play receiver against FBS receiving peers.
2025 Season · Final
2025 season snapshot | final
Receiving
REC
13 68th
YDS
192 75th
YPR
14.8 89th
TD
2 84th
Game Log · Week-by-week
2025 season · 9 games
| Wk | Opp | REC | YDS | AVG | TD | LONG | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wk 1 | W 61-9vs Duquesne | 1 | 34 | 34.0 | 1 | 34 | Season-high 36 yds |
| Wk 3 | L 24-31@ West Virginia | 2 | 26 | 13.0 | 0 | 22 | |
| Wk 5 | L 27-34vs Louisville | 1 | 11 | 11.0 | 0 | 11 | |
| Wk 6 | W 48-7vs Boston College | 3 | 22 | 7.3 | 0 | 11 | |
| Wk 8 | W 30-13@ Syracuse | 1 | 20 | 20.0 | 0 | 20 | |
| Wk 9 | W 53-34vs NC State | 1 | 5 | 5.0 | 0 | 5 | |
| Wk 12 | L 15-37vs Notre Dame | 1 | 21 | 21.0 | 1 | 21 | |
| Wk 13 | W 42-28@ Georgia Tech | 1 | 17 | 17.0 | 0 | 17 | |
| Bowl | L 17-23@ East Carolina | 2 | 36 | 18.0 | 0 | 26 | |
| Total | 13 | 192 | 16.3 | 2 | 34 |
Season-by-season tables Career rows + per-season box score
Traditional history
Traditional Stats
Season rows up top, career context at the bottom.
Season context · Team result + system
2024Pittsburgh7-6HC: Pat Narduzzi · Balanced, fast tempo
2025Pittsburgh8-5HC: Pat Narduzzi · Balanced
| Season | Team | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Pittsburgh | 13 | 192 | 14.8 | 2 | -- |
| 2024 | Pittsburgh | 2 | 22 | 11.0 | 1 | -- |
| Career | 2 loaded seasons | 15 | 214 | 14.3 | 3 | -- |
Advanced layer Usage, value, and context
Advanced metrics second
Advanced Metrics
Usage, value, and opponent-adjusted context.
The tight end's share of the passing offense, which helps distinguish a featured receiving tight end from a secondary option.
A blended usage view that shows how often the offense flows through the tight end compared with other same-level peers.
Every percentile is compared against players at the same position and level, so an FBS quarterback is judged against FBS quarterbacks, not the whole sport.
The top tables stick to the stats fans already know from broadcasts and box scores. Advanced context is pushed underneath instead of replacing the basics.
Open full stat explorer
| Group | Metric | Value | Rank | Pct | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Receiving | Receptions | 13 | #154/475 | 68th pct | Volumevs FBS TE |
| Receiving | Receiving yards | 192 | #118/475 | 75th pct | Volumevs FBS TE |
| Receiving | Receiving TD | 2 | #79/475 | 84th pct | Scoringvs FBS TE |
| Receiving | Yards / catch | 14.8 | #55/475 | 89th pct | Efficiencyvs FBS TE |
| Usage | Pass share | 5.3% | #270/468 | 43rd pct | Air-game usagevs FBS TE |
| Receiving | Receiving LONG | 34 | #103/475 | 79th pct | Metricvs FBS TE |
| Usage | Passing-down usage | 4.7% | #159/468 | 66th pct | Known-passing sharevs FBS TE |
| Usage | 3rd-down usage | 4.4% | #170/468 | 64th pct | Money-down loadvs FBS TE |
| Usage | Role share | 2.9% | #235/468 | 50th pct | Share of team offensevs FBS TE |
| Usage | 2nd-down usage | 2.8% | #282/468 | 40th pct | Middle-down loadvs FBS TE |
| Usage | Standard-down usage | 1.9% | #348/468 | 26th pct | Base-situation sharevs FBS TE |
| Usage | 1st-down usage | 1.3% | #363/468 | 23rd pct | Early-down loadvs FBS TE |
| Usage | Rush share | 0.0% | #58/468 | 88th pct | Ground-game usagevs FBS TE |
Player Standing
Universal 17-step ladder. Tier pills below; accolade streams nested.
AWAITING CLASSIFICATION
On-team2-deepStartingRecognizedEliteApex
AWAITING CLASSIFICATION · Rung None of 16
Why he’s here
Standing classification populates when honors, Heisman, and roster signals all align.
What moves him up
What moves him down
Accolade streams
Status—Awaiting tracker
The Mackey award tracker integrates per-week probability once a dedicated scraper for this award lands. Confirmed past winners and finalists for this player will surface here.
Splits · Per-game
2025 season · 9 games
Home vs Road
| REC/g | YDS/g | YPR | TD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home5g | 1.4 | 18.6 | 15.7 | 0.4 |
| Road4g | 1.5 | 24.8 | 17.0 | 0.0 |
Win vs Loss
| REC/g | YDS/g | YPR | TD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wins5g | 1.4 | 19.6 | 16.7 | 0.2 |
| Losses4g | 1.5 | 23.5 | 15.8 | 0.2 |
First half vs Second half
| REC/g | YDS/g | YPR | TD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weeks 1-75g | 1.8 | 25.8 | 16.7 | 0.2 |
| Weeks 8+4g | 1.0 | 15.8 | 15.8 | 0.2 |
Pocket and defense-quality (clean vs. pressure) splits are coming soon.
Savant · Box-rate percentiles
Where this profile ranks vs the TE cohort
45Mid-pack
Elite: yards / catch (94th). Concern: receptions (9th).
Percentiles versus same-position peers with enough snaps this season, based on box-score rates.
Advanced Savant · TE · 2024
Percentile Card
Advanced opponent-adjusted percentile bars are coming soon for this player.
P4G5All FBS
Advanced Savant
Opponent-adjusted advanced metrics with a cohort filter.
Advanced opponent-adjusted metrics are coming soon for this player. Selected cohort: P4.
Peer Comparator · Fingerprint match
Three closest profiles by box-rate percentile
Malachi ThomasPittsburghLuke LindenmeyerNebraska· 64% simEthan ConnerTroy· 63% simDecker DeGraafWashington· 63% sim
Yards / catch
Long catch
Rec TDs
Rec yards
Receptions
Closest peers by overall box-score percentile profile at the same position.
Player DNA
The Complete TE
Dual-threat: blocks when needed, catches when needed. Coveted on both sides.
TE
His 2025 production profile sits closest to Blake Whiteheart’s 2021 season.
Blake Whiteheart
71%match
#2
Giles Amos
61%
#3
Trace Bruckler
65%
#4
Walker Lyons
63%
#5
Brandon Chapman
60%
Matches Blake on
TD rate
Reception volume
Total EPA (college ability)
Differs from Blake on
EPA / play (adj) (higher)
Yards / reception (lower)
Not enough data yet for this comparison.
As a sophomore, his production profile tracks closest to Lakota Dippre's sophomore season at James Madison (2025).
Lakota Dippre
78%match
#2
Blake Whiteheart
76%
#3
Ethan Davis
71%
#4
Walker Lyons
70%
#5
Nate Kurisky
70%
Matches Lakota on
Total EPA (college ability)
Yards / reception
TD rate
Differs from Lakota on
EPA / play (adj) (higher)
Supporting Cast · Scheme
Staff and system around the player
Head Coach
Pat Narduzzi
Pass share
52.3%
464 pass / 424 run
Plays / game
68.3
13 games
OL sack rate (allowed)
9.3%
365 dropbacks · PBP
Scheme: Balanced.
Coaching Lineage · 2024–2025
1 coach2024
Pat Narduzzi
Pittsburgh
2025
Pat Narduzzi
Pittsburgh
Played his entire career under Pat Narduzzi.
Bio · Recruiting · Transfer · Roster
Off-field context — switch tabs to drill into recruit profile, transfer arc, or roster timeline.
HometownThomasville, GA
Height6'4"
Weight240 lb
Class2
PositionTE
Jersey82
No fields populated yet.
No fields populated yet.
Current teamPittsburgh
ConferenceACC
Joined2025
Career arc2 season(s)
Trophy Case · Detail
Every honor on the ledger, broken out by stream and selector.
No formal honors on the ledger yet
All-America, all-conference, player-of-the-week, watch-list, and postseason awards land here when they're earned. The absence is the signal: most players never collect formal honors, and that's its own kind of context.
Honors Timeline
Season-end distinction and week-by-week recognition on one timeline.
| Season | Honor | Scope | Team / Selector | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No formal honors on the ledger yet. All-America, all-conference, weekly awards, watch lists, and postseason trophies land here when they’re earned. | ||||
Heisman By Year
Modeled rank and official finish by season.
| Season | Team | Role | Latest Model | Forecast | Win | Finalist | Official Finish | Points | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Pittsburgh | TE2 | #1230 | #1227 | 0.0% | 0.0% | -- | -- | W16 snapshot | ACC |
Roster Timeline
Team, conference, and class by season.
| Season | Team | Conference | Pos | Class | Bio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Pittsburgh | ACC | TE | 2 | No. 82 | 6-4 | 240 lb | Thomasville, GA |
| 2024 | Pittsburgh | ACC | TE | 2 | No. 82 | 6-4 | 240 lb | Thomasville, GA |