Kenyon
Sadiq.
Kenyon
Sadiq.
Oregon
"Flex move tight end with 4.5-range wheels and YAC juice on option routes — but only one year as Oregon's featured TE (splitting 2025 with Jamari Johnson), so the blocking sample lags the athletic profile."Pre-draft read
He aligns in multiple spots: attached to the tackle, in the slot, in the backfield, and split wide. He wins with burst off the snap, clean stems, and easy speed on wheels and seams. He snaps off routes suddenly and possesses the hand skills to snatch the ball outside his frame. His YAC ability is a key asset, demonstrating one-cut vision, quick jump-cuts, and contact balance to break arm tackles and extend plays.
As a blocker, he relies on quickness and angles. He effectively reaches landmarks on outside zone plays and can pin linebackers in space. However, he struggles on down blocks against stacked ends, often riding defenders instead of displacing them. His pass protection technique, particularly eye discipline and hand placement, is still developing.
The New York Jets run a varied spread RPO system with a Shanahan-style outside zone foundation, emphasizing athletic and versatile movement tight ends.
Sadiq can be an immediate impact as a receiving threat in 12 personnel, with a ceiling to develop into a top-tier starting 'F' tight end capable of attacking all three levels of the defense.
A run-heavy gap/power blocking scheme that primarily uses its tight ends as in-line blockers with heavy attached responsibilities.
His athletic receiving profile and YAC ability fit perfectly into a diverse passing game, provided he is not asked to consistently execute heavy in-line blocking assignments.
2026 NFL Draft Highlights: TE Kenyon Sadiq | Oregon Football
Big Ten's official pre-draft cutup — full route tree, alignment mix (in-line, slot, wing) and YAC reps against Ohio State, Washington and Penn State.
Kenyon Sadiq | 2025 Highlights
Redshirt-junior season reel showing seam-route production, red-zone target work and open-field tackle-breaking that defined the first-round case.
Kenyon Sadiq — Most Freakish Player in the 2026 NFL Draft
Athletic-trait cutup focused on the movement skills that carried a fringe testing profile — wheel routes, jump cuts and contact balance in space.
Kenyon Sadiq projects as a flexible tight end for an offense seeking a versatile pass-catching option rather than a primary in-line blocker. Drafted as the second tight end off the board, his role is centered on creating mismatches in various alignments.
After committing to Oregon as a three-star recruit, Sadiq played three seasons behind other tight ends before earning a full workload as a redshirt junior. His best season in 2025 included 40 receptions for 490 yards and 8 touchdowns. He recorded six catches for 92 yards and a touchdown against Ohio State in the Big Ten Championship, highlighting his ability against top competition.
Concern existed regarding his decision to opt out of on-field testing at the Combine and Pro Day, leaving his athletic profile reliant solely on game film. This choice, along with having only one full season as a primary tight end, contributed to evaluators' questions. Despite these flags, he was selected as a first-round pick at 16 overall by the New York Jets.
- 01
Alignment versatility
Legitimate five-way flex tight end who logged Oregon snaps in-line, wing, slot, backfield and out wide, and did not look out of place at any of them.
- 02
Route-runner speed for the position
Wins vertically on seams and wheels with fluid acceleration, snaps off in-breakers with a plant foot that keeps him ahead of thumper linebackers.
- 03
YAC creator
Elite contact balance and jump-cut suddenness in the open field; broke 20+ tackles on catches per PFF as a junior and turned quick game into explosives.
- 04
Hands out of frame
Late hands, plus catch radius over the middle; on tape shows the ability to pluck low-away and reach back for throws behind him without stopping his feet.
- 05
Football character and staff trust
Multi-year special-teams contributor before starter reps arrived; Oregon captain in 2025 and repeatedly cited by Lanning as the tone-setter of the TE room.
- 01
In-line blocking is a projection
Wins with angles and quickness in space but gets ridden and dislodged by long, heavy edges when asked to fold-block or down-block on gap concepts.
- 02
Body-catcher tendencies
Traps balls against the pads on layups and short-area targets, which produced a handful of first-contact drops on tape in 2024 despite the plus catch radius.
- 03
No verified athletic testing
Opted out of Combine and Pro Day drills, so the "elite mover" case rests entirely on the college film with no forty, jump or agility number to anchor it.
- 04
Rep count vs starter workload
Only one full season as the primary tight end after three years behind Ferguson and Herbert; adjustment to NFL split safeties and disguised zone is a real jump.
| Yr | Team | G | Rec | Yds | TD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Oregon | 14 | 5 | 24 | 1 |
| 2024 | Oregon | 14 | 24 | 308 | 2 |
| 2025 | Oregon | 11 | 51 | 560 | 8 |
| Career | — | 39 | 80 | 892 | 11 |
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
- Dante MooreQB26%
- Dierre Hill Jr.RB7%
- Malik BensonWR7%
#5 of 20 tracked contributors · Production leaned on volume · Offense explosiveness 1.34 (p85) · CFBD — usage x PPA per tracked player
Trusted every-down starter who fills all three tight-end alignments competently, gets targeted 5-6 times a game, and has to be schemed open on shot plays.
Same flex-first TE archetype who wins with route feel and YAC before he ever anchors as a Y — Goedert's outcome is the aspirational separator-plus-run-after profile.
Athletic Day-2 flex TE who never solved the in-line blocking piece cleanly and settled into a rotational move-TE / 12-personnel role.