{"id":873688,"date":"2026-04-24T17:39:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T17:39:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/873688\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T17:39:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T17:39:19","slug":"oregon-te-kenyon-sadiq-thought-being-drafted-by-new-york-jets-was-a-prank-call","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/873688\/","title":{"rendered":"Oregon TE Kenyon Sadiq thought being drafted by New York Jets was a prank call"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oregon<\/a>\u2018s Kenyon Sadiq<\/a> was the first tight end selected in the 2026 NFL Draft Thursday night. He was selected by the New York Jets at pick No. 16, although he hilariously thought he was being trolled.<\/p>\n

In a video released by the New York Jets on Friday morning, Sadiq was shown speaking to Jets GM Darren Mougey, head coach Aaron Glenn, and owner Woody Johnson. During his conversation with Glenn, Sadiq revealed what he thought was really going down.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, yeah, I was thinking this was a prank call for a second,\u201d Sadiq told Glenn with a laugh. \u201cI appreciate it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sadiq was one of three New York Jets draft selections Thursday night. The Jets snagged Texas Tech<\/a> All-American defensive end David Bailey<\/a> with the No. 2 overall pick, drafted Sadiq at No. 16, and traded up to select Indiana<\/a> wide receiver Omar Cooper Jr.<\/a> at pick No. 30. New York, which hasn\u2019t made the postseason since 2010, was ultra-aggressive in the Draft heading into year two of the Aaron Glenn era.<\/p>\n

Kenyon Sadiq will slide into Jets offense, led by quarterback Geno Smith<\/p>\n

\u201cA versatile tight end with a shredded physique and alluring potential as a volume target. Sadiq\u2019s route tree will be full of branches,\u201d NFL.com\u2019s Lance Zierlein wrote about Sadiq<\/a>. \u201cHis athleticism and break quickness should allow him to uncover against man coverage on all three levels. He\u2019s talented after the catch, with the ability to make things easier for play-callers and quarterbacks looking to move the sticks.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has the body control and hand strength to win contested catches. But, will occasionally allow balls to hit the ground on lower-difficulty plays. He\u2019s adequate as a blocker, giving good effort in-line and locating and landing on linebackers as a move blocker. Teams looking to diversify their passing game options with a talented pass-catching tight end could make Sadiq a priority.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sadiq emerged as one of the best tight ends in all of college football last season. He hauled in 51 receptions for 560 yards and eight touchdowns. He was vital to Oregon\u2018s stellar 2025 campaign, which saw the Ducks march to the Semifinals of the College Football Playoff. The Idaho native now looks to become the next great Jets tight end. He\u2019ll blend into an offense consisting of veteran quarterback Geno Smith<\/a>, running back Breece Hall<\/a>, and star wide receiver Garrett Wilson<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Coming off a season in which the Jets scored just 17.6 PPG (29th in the NFL), the addition of a potential star tight end is massive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oregon\u2018s Kenyon Sadiq was the first tight end selected in the 2026 NFL Draft Thursday night. He was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":873689,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7,118045,49,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-873688","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-kenyon-sadiq-23-skyline","10":"tag-ncaa","11":"tag-ncaa-football"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116460910387813491","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=873688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873688\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/873689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=873688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=873688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=873688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}