{"id":208236,"date":"2026-04-24T11:24:36","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T11:24:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/208236\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T11:24:36","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T11:24:36","slug":"new-york-jets-take-kenyon-sadiq-tight-end-from-oregon-with-no-16-pick-in-2026-nfl-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/208236\/","title":{"rendered":"New York Jets take Kenyon Sadiq, tight end from Oregon, with No. 16 pick in 2026 NFL Draft"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Athletic has live coverage<\/a> of the 2026 NFL Draft.<\/p>\n

The New York Jets made Oregon tight end Kenyon Sadiq the 16th pick of the 2026 NFL Draft<\/a> on Thursday. He was the first tight end taken.<\/p>\n

Good things come to those who wait. And in today\u2019s college football landscape, there aren\u2019t many first-round talents with the patience to do so. Sadiq is the exception. After backing up former Oregon star tight end Terrance Ferguson for two years in Eugene, the ultra-athletic Sadiq had a breakout year in 2025.<\/p>\n

Sadiq led the Ducks in receptions (51) and touchdown catches (eight) in 2025 and started 14 out of 15 games. As has been the case in recent years under head coach Dan Lanning, Oregon\u2019s offense wasn\u2019t overly reliant on any one offensive weapon. The Ducks had plenty. But Sadiq flashed glimpses of next-level stardom with blazing speed (4.39-second 40-yard dash at the NFL combine) and his adeptness in lining up all over the field.<\/p>\n

Though his numbers weren\u2019t gaudy in 2025, Sadiq was still named a second-team All-American and was voted first-team All-Big Ten. Sadiq already has all the makings of a game-changing tight end.<\/p>\n

\u2018The Beast\u2019 breakdown<\/p>\n

Sadiq ranked No. 16 in Dane Brugler\u2019s top 300 big board<\/a>. Here\u2019s what Brugler had to say about him in his annual NFL Draft guide<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cSadiq has mismatch-creating potential in the NFL, because of his ability to out-quick and out-tough defenders as both a pass catcher and blocker. He projects as a versatile, Vernon Davis-like weapon and has his best football ahead of him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coaching intel<\/p>\n

What an anonymous coach had to say about Sadiq in Bruce Feldman\u2019s mock draft<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cPhysically, he\u2019s freaky, man \u2014 he\u2019s everything you want. He\u2019s agile. He\u2019s twitchy. I think he fits more in the NFL than in college. They\u2019ll split him out and flex him and let him do his thing. I\u2019d have thought they would\u2019ve forced the ball to him, but they didn\u2019t. He routed up our safety, and it would\u2019ve been a touchdown easily, but the ball didn\u2019t come his way.\u201d \u2014 A Big Ten defensive backs coach<\/p>\n

Nick Baumgardner grades the pick<\/p>\n

Grade: A<\/p>\n

I love this pick. The Jets need a pass catcher, and Sadiq is the best one left on the board. So what if he\u2019s a tight end? He can also line up as a gigantic X-receiver or maybe even a Z, and he\u2019s an outstanding blocker at the line of scrimmage and out in space.<\/p>\n

A freakish athlete, arguably the best in this class, and the type of weapon who can always keep the math in the offense\u2019s favor, Sadiq is built for the modern game. I like this pick better than the David Bailey pick, if I\u2019m being honest.<\/p>\n

Ted Nguyen\u2019s assessment<\/p>\n

The Jets need weapons, and even though tight end Mason Taylor showed some promise last season, the league is trending to more two-tight-end sets. Pairing Sadiq and Taylor will give the Jets two matchup problems at the position and also give Geno Smith a seam stretcher.<\/p>\n

How he fits<\/p>\n

The Jets addressed their biggest need on defense with the No. 2 pick when they selected Bailey, the Texas Tech edge rusher. Then they turned to their biggest need by adding a pass catcher in Sadiq.<\/p>\n

Maybe, technically, wide receiver as a position was a bigger need, but Sadiq is much more than just a traditional tight end. He\u2019s a freak athlete (he ran a 4.39 40-yard dash at the combine with a 43.5-inch vertical jump and 11-foot, 1-inch broad jump) who has the ability to line up all over the place. He\u2019s not traditionally huge for the tight end position (6 feet 3, 241 pounds), but he makes up for it with that ridiculous athleticism. He also had impressive downfield ability, which will add another layer to the Jets offense \u2014 he had 13 catches of 20-plus yards in 2025, the second most among all tight ends in the FBS.<\/p>\n

As the Jets work to surround Smith \u2014 and any future quarterback \u2014 with the best possible supporting cast, it\u2019s hard to argue with the decision to add the most dynamic pass catcher on the board.<\/p>\n

Depth-chart impact<\/p>\n

The Jets just drafted Taylor in the second round out of LSU last year, but this doesn\u2019t really impact Taylor\u2019s role in any major way. If anything, it might open things up for Taylor and the way the Jets use their weapons on offense interchangeably. Because of Sadiq\u2019s athleticism and ability to line up as a wide receiver, they\u2019ll be able to play Taylor and Sadiq together pretty consistently. The most fun version of the Jets offense might have Sadiq lining up as a big slot receiver with Garrett Wilson and Adonai Mitchell flanking on the outside \u2014 and Breece Hall, a top-notch pass catcher, coming out of the backfield.<\/p>\n

The Jets also have fifth-year tight end Jeremy Ruckert, who just signed an extension late last season and will play a key role as the primary blocking tight end of the group.<\/p>\n

They also could have picked \u2026<\/p>\n

The two wide receivers the Jets were most tied to at this selection during the draft process were still on the board: USC\u2019s Makai Lemon and Indiana\u2019s Omar Cooper. The Jets ultimately believed there was a significant drop-off at wide receiver after Carnell Tate and Jordyn Tyson, so after both went in the top 10, the Jets couldn\u2019t pass up adding Sadiq at this slot.<\/p>\n

The Jets also own picks at No. 33 and No. 44 and could (and probably should) add a wide receiver with one of those picks since the team lacks depth behind Wilson and Mitchell.<\/p>\n

Fast evaluation<\/p>\n

There is something funny about the Jets drafting a tight end in 2026. Experts thought they might do this in 2024 with Brock Bowers and 2025 with Tyler Warren. Instead, both times, the Jets drafted offensive tackles (Olu Fashanu and Armand Membou). Now, when few had them projected to pick a tight end this early, they went ahead and did it anyway.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Athletic has live coverage of the 2026 NFL Draft. The New York Jets made Oregon tight end…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":208237,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,11,430,10,33422],"class_list":{"0":"post-208236","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-headlines","10":"tag-new-york-jets","11":"tag-new-york-news","12":"tag-oregon-ducks"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}