Transcription
This is Oregon tight end Kenyan Sadi. The best tight ends in the NFL are freak athletes and Sadique had a faster 10-yard split than Deshawn Jackson. I mean, that's outrageous. He's going to be an asset on these deep crossing routes, leaks, seam balls. He's going to be a flex tight end. That part's easy. The hard part is exactly figuring out what could he get away with at his size against NFL sized athlete.
So, 6' 3, 241 lbs, short arms, but does have a slightly larger wingspan at 32nd percentile. And then we get into it. a 43940, a 154 10 yard split, 99th percentile vert jump and broad jump. We know he's a great athlete. We know he can catch passes. We know he can run after the catch. The only question that the people watching this video have, Hayden, is is he going to play enough? Is he going to play on all downs? Can he hold up in the run blocking game for us to really fall in love with him? I think we're right on the fringe because he's pound-for-pound strong. He really wants to block as well. And I think anything blocking at the second level, he's going to be very good at. Can he like go absolutely rip down against a defensive end? Does he have the leg drive? It's like the overall mass to do that. I don't think he really does. Uh I do think he's mostly going to be that second tight end. And the offensive coordinators are going to have to decide like are they going to use him like Sam Leaporta does where you take some of your L's uh in the run blocking department because he's so awesome as a receiver. I think we're kind of right in that range. Worst case scenario, he's going to be like the most awesome version of like your Isaiah likely and those guys as the tight end, too. But I will say he is so strong. He really gives a and he's very athletic getting to the second level. I think that alone makes him a lot better than your Evan Ingrams and your Dalton Concades and that tier of tight end.
You mentioned that Sam Laaporta could be one avenue for him to work in the NFL. That's actually my player comparison for him. And I believe when people watch Leaporta every single week, they think he's one of these big tight ends. He's not. I mean, he's 63 and a half, 245 pounds. That's nearly the exact same size here as Kenan Sadique. So, he is more of that ilk than the Jordan Reeds, the Evan Ingram of that type. I still want to talk about this blocking thing because that is not only gonna be the hangup for us to talk about him, for NFL teams to talk about him, for the fantasy community to talk about him. Oregon believed he could play all downs. And I think that's kind of important here. Uh he had an 82% snap rate this season. That's including a game that he missed. And on running plays, he was on the field for 74% of stats, which is much higher than his counterpart in this draft class. And Eli Sters, for example, who's only on the field for 41% of Vanderbilt's running plays this year. As a run blocker, I did see him, you know, line up in line and hit inside zone or duo and help out his offensive tackle. But the best stuff, easily the best stuff was kind of these split flow actions, moving across the formation, uh, taking out an edge or a linebacker or on these toss plays. And when you weaponize him against a safety or a quarterback, he really does want to engage and and get down the field. Uh, look, is it going to be perfect for every single team out there? Can you line him up as an inline Y tight end for all 32 organizations? Probably not. But do I think he has the will, the want to, and at least the strength right now to kind of Yes. beat the slot receiver code and stay out there in 11 personnel and 12 personnel and all of it.
Hey, I think I'm leaning towards this way. I think I'm optimistic on Kenan Sadik being a 80% snap player in. That's where I'm at, too. I think that you can get away with it assuming you're okay taking some of the L's where he's just going to get stacked and shed. Like, he has short arms and his legs are really, really strong. Uh, but he's not going to get bigger. Like you can't put more muscle on what he already has. He's like completely filled out there as well. So, I think that's kind of where I was at with it. Uh, the want to is like absolutely there. Just like a kind of a side note. Field Gates noted that he had the most special team snaps on Oregon in 2024. He's universally loved. Crushed the interviews and stuff. So, like the want to give a factor is absolutely there. And that's where I'm I'm willing to round up with him, but he's not a like NFL inline guy still. Like I think you can get away with it. He is not, you know, Coulson Lovelin and the guys Tyler Warren who are just way bigger than Kenyan Sadik ever could be.
Mike Garfeller reported at the NFL combine that one NFL executive said that it was the best interview he's ever had at the combine was Kenyan Sadique. Let's dive in the fun stuff. Okay, as a pass catcher, the movement is so easy for him. Like when he's in the open field, I'm not talking about as a tackle breaker, but he looks like he has a running back stride with the ball in his hands. The gate is so similar to a true ball carrier. And then the really special stuff happens when you're lining up opposite a linebacker. Like let's say they put him in line and pre- snap they motion him out and then a linebacker walks out. I guarantee you the play caller in the booth or on the sideline just is licking his chops when he sees that happen because he's too fast for them. You know, they'll try to get hands. He'll attack one of their edges. He'll work right by it. Uh, and then also like when you see that same split flow action, you can really weaponize that with him. If he has a number of these blocks early on across the formation, then he'll do a bluff block. And if that linebacker or edge player hesitates at all and doesn't track with him, that legit leads to explosives after the catch, like a four yard gain, then gets, you know, explodes up to a 17, 21 yard game with the ball in his hand.
His straight line explosive is like beyond silly. like he it stands out immediately. He's one of these guys that absolutely lit up USC and you saw this the uh athleticism you know they all do but it did he have it in different ways. One time there was a hurdle which you can see the uh his vertical there there's another high point on a seam ball where obviously he can go up and get and then another time in the slot just a simple incut but absolutely just runs away from the DB that's that's that's guarding him. I will say he is not the Mr. wiggle guy and Mr. Mr. Tackle Breaker, which is just fascinating. I think he's probably just really tight, which you can kind of see from like these really muscly guys. The straight line explosiveness. He's going to win the race. Like all these plays that you're that you're mentioning, he's going to win the race. Like he legitimately runs a 4-3. Uh he's not as nimble as the other kind of smaller guys uh that we historically seen at the tight end position. So I think it's just kind of fascinating like how he wins. It's to me very um there's a clear vision I have with him and I do still have some question marks on the other parts of the receiving profile.
I wouldn't say there was a ton of man-to-man work in terms of hey I have to route up this safety that's right on top of me and if I get you know this sliver of space or or uh you know positional advantage in front of him I can catch it with a defender draped on my back. It was a lot more of like kind of these runaway routes or streets and you know they got him on wheels. They got him as like the leak player with a bunch of misdirection on the opposite way and they got him on those like seam stretchers. It felt like whenever he was targeted down the seam it was a touchdown or 20 plus yard gain every single time and they didn't really run enough of them. That's instantly like day one install of what he can be in off. Uh, I think his route running is really lackluster, but he can win down the football field, which is so rare for this position. I looked at his route tree versus like power four tight ends. He runs way more go routes than the typical tight end. A lot more crossers, a lot more post and corners and that type of stuff, and then a lot fewer of the hitch routes and slant routes, which makes sense. Like, you don't want the static stuff. Yes. He's almost like a shrunken version of Kyle Pitts on like how you're going to utilize him down the field. We want this dude running by guys down the football field in advantageous matchups. He just gets there in a in a way different way than Kyle Pittz does. Um, so I think the route tree is pretty limited. I I just did not see him settle into zones, which I think was a really big problem where he would either like either overshoot it and go right to the linebacker or settle in right behind the linebacker and did not have the ability to like either catch the ball on his back shoulder or keep moving and catch the ball on his front shoulder. his hands kind of came and went and then I do think sometimes when he was like trying to uh incut or trying to uh curl around a defender you can s kind of see his his tightness. So I think that's where like to me if he's going to go in the Tyler Warren or Coloulston Lovelin range or Brock Bowers range I think we're dealing with a totally different caliber athlete in terms of like the route running prowess that I see from Sadiq versus the other guys. Now he can run right by all those guys and there's some advantages to that. I did not think that he was like Mr. like automatic route runner type uh given how high he's going to go in the draft.
I think I saw and I'm trying to remember what game it was maybe against Minnesota some sitting in the soft areas and that was exactly when he came back from from injury there was one catch I can clearly point to probably one catch where he did had to kind of like throttle down at the top of his break and kind of work back and catch it in his back pocket. But that one he like fell that one like he fell down. You can see the tightness there where it's like that was like imagine Coulson Lovelin running that route. It would have happened differently.
To back up your point, his mistackles force rate now, and I'll get into the stats in a moment, declined from 40% down to 17.4%. And I wonder if maybe if he added some weight onto his frame this season. Let's talk about the production overall. Okay, some are going to ask, well, if he's going to be drafted as mostly a pass catcher first, then where's the total production as basically a college player the past two seasons? Let's look at 2025. 51 catches, 560 yards, eight touchdowns. There are basically five pass catchers on Oregon with 500 plus yards, including two tight ends. And only one of the other guys of those five other than him is, uh, in this draft, and that's wide receiver Malik Benson. And then the previous season, uh, when he was a secondyear player, just 24 catches, 308 yards, two touchdowns. He was outproduced by Terrence Ferguson who went in the second round of the Rams as a tight end and TZ Johnson we know with the Buccaneers.
So a couple stats I had yards per route run this last year was at 1.5. Coulson Lovelin and Tyler Warren were at 2.7. Obviously those guys are a little bit older than Sadique. And obviously longer you stay in college football, your numbers will improve, but that's a pretty big difference. Career yards per game is bottom 13th percentile among drafted tight ends in the last two decades. Uh, I adjust for how young you are and how good your team is. And when I put all those numbers together, 62nd percentile. So, I don't think that he's this like 90th percentile tight end in terms of the production. I do think that you have to assume that he's going to have a better feel for zone coverage. He's going to have to clean up some of the drops. He made some spectacular plays like his five best catches are as good as it gets and then like he'll drop a screen and then he'll like clap at the ball in zone coverage and that goes incomplete. So, I think that there's a development that's required for Kenyan Sadiq to turn into the allp pro bowl level uh receiving tight end. I feel comfortable doing that in the later half of round one. I am not putting him next to Coulson Lovelin inside the top 10 where Brock Bowers was.
Coulson and Brock Bowers aren't in this draft class. No, of course. But I just think like my expectations for Kenyan Sadi are probably not as high as where I think other people are going to be willing to to draft him. I think that he's a lower in that tier for some of the blocking purposes, but also I just thought I was expecting more like um just like feel and a little bit more route like running chops than what I was seeing on tape.
Yeah. And you know the Tyler Warren video that we did last year, he basically was the entire Penn State offense that season. Coulson Lovelin easily the best pass catcher on Michigan. I don't know if you can say that here with Kenan Sadique and Oregon. They just had a bunch of dudes at this point. Here's something from David Gaudi that he posted on Twitter. In the last 25 years, there have only been eight tight ends drafted in the first round that only played three years of college ball. Again, the last 25 years. Wow. Only eight tight ends drafted in the first round. Those names, Vernon Davis, which could be a comparison, minus 14 pounds, Eric Ebron, David and Jooku, TJ Hawinson, Noah Fant, Cal Pitts, and Brock Bowers. So, it's simply uncommon for a guy to only play three years of the college game and be drafted in the first round. And all those guys other than Noah Fant had at least one stellar season of basically a thousand yards or however many touchdowns you want to bring up. And so, you know, me and you led with it actually that elite tight ends are almost always elite athletes on top of it. Like Pro Bowls aren't a perfect um you know, bearer of what skill is at the NFL level. RA isn't, you know, the best composite score out there, but if you combine the two, 75% of Pro Bowlers are elite athletes at the tit position over the last like 25 years. 20% are just average athletes and five below average athletes. So, he's going to go in round one. He only played three years of college football and he's a freak show of an athlete. Yep. Like already that package together kind of means more to me than like the raw stats that we can look.
Oh, yeah. Yeah, definitely. So, I it's going to take some projection. I have full faith he will get there to some degree. I think that he is maxed out in in some of these ways and we'll see if he just looks a little bit more agile out in space and as a route runner to like truly turn into that like you know 80 90 reception player or is he going to be more of the 60 catches per game but they're more manufactured and he's going to have a couple seasons where he's averaging 15 16 yards per reception at a position where you just like that's completely unheard of. So I think that's kind of the the debate that I'm having right now. This is meaningful for every player, but does it really matter which OC he lands with?
I think so. Um I think for for the first thing is like what are you okay with in terms of the the the blocking? It's like some some OC's are going to be obsessed like you got to be able to block uh against defensive ends and others are going to be able to put that to the side. And then I think that you're going to have to scheme up some of these like leak routes that we're talking about and go go routes and not every single offense has that. There's a lot of like Travis Kelce offenses where it's a lot of option routes which I'm not sure Sadique is necessarily that's maximizing his skill set. It's a different body type, but you know, someone last year who had screens and then also downfield patterns was Elijah Aoro. And I'm actually much more in favor of the blocking of Ken Sadi than I was Elijah Auroro. And he played only like when healthy 45 50% of the snaps. And again, there's a reason why someone like AJ Barner plays over him. And then, you know, there's a reason why Dawson Knox and Jackson Haw keep Don Kay to the sideline. like we need him to be a 70 to 80% snap player. Now, again, I I do have some issues with his game. Again, I think his short arms are just going to limit some of these contested catches. He just doesn't have a lot of these tight window targets that he comes down with, it feels like. And then, yeah, the drop rate was extremely high this year.
Some of it was like this clap technique. Other times it was concentration, but then like the special plays again in a class that when you get to a point that it might lack a little bit of special sauce.
Yeah. and we crave explosives in the league. Uh I think that he is going to go in the top 20 of this class. I agree with you there. I will have him closer to like 25th overall. I would rather take the wide receivers. Um, and if we're going to play this game, is he going to be is he better than your slot or your third receiver on the team? I think that like I would rather have Casey Conpsion's receiving profile versus Kenyan Sadi. Um, and I think that's going to be the debate how he's going to be able to play and get all the receiving production in the NFL. So, fascinating player. Like some comps. You mentioned it. Smaller Vernon Davis, but like 13 pounds like really does matter. Noah Fant, we mentioned Isaiah likely. I think he's a better version of much faster version than Isaiah Likely who just got paid $13 million. Uh, and then like rocket ship John Smith. Just like how explosive is that Rocket? I I think that's the the fun part. Um, so he's he's kind of a one of one, you know, like this has been like since like Vernon Davis to kind of get this type of profile and we've like shrunken him down. So, uh, really fascinating player.
Yeah. And Vernon Davis had 14 pounds on him. Again, I'll go with the Sam Laora comparison. Unfortunately, uh, the Lions already have Sam Laora. Ben Johnson already has Coulson Lovelin. David Blau just gave a whole bunch of money to Chico Quano as well. So, another that tree is kind of taken care of. Um, yeah. I I just can't get over how few round one tight ends only played three seasons. And if you look at the Tyler Warren stuff per route, the Trey McBride stuff per route, and he was a second round pick, the Sam Laora stuff per route through their first three NFL seasons, that was quite low as well. So, I think the best of Kansas City's football is probably in front of him. Yep.
And uh hopefully that development happens quickly in the league and he's out there a whole bunch. All right. Yep. If you like this, there's plenty more we've got in the chamber. So, hit that subscribe button, go and watch another quarterback or wide receiver or running back prospect profile, and we'll see you over.