Watching Kenyon Sadiq’s highlight reel makes it feel like the earth is shaking beneath your feet.
If the Oregon tight end is not crashing to the ground in the end zone after an athletic, full-extension catch — like he did against Rutgers and Minnesota — then Sadiq is driving a Wisconsin or Washington linebacker onto his back and laying on top of him like a wrestler waiting for three points. Or he is hurdling over a Penn State or Montana State defensive back whose arms are flailing in empty airspace.
The NFL has explosive pass-catching tight ends and physical blocking tight ends. But Sadiq could develop into one of the best in both categories in short order.
“The position isn’t to be a bigger, slower receiver,” Oregon offensive coordinator Drew Mehringer told The Post. “It’s to be the combo player that everyone wants and needs. That’s exactly what he became. And his ceiling is still well in front of him.”
Sadiq’s draft stock could skyrocket starting Friday when he is expected to challenge Vernon Davis’ 20-year-old Scouting Combine record for fastest 40-yard dash time by a tight end (4.40). The bar-setting time last year belonged to Sadiq’s college teammate, Terrance Ferguson (4.63).
Add in a vertical leap that should exceed 41 inches — good enough for the top five all time by a tight end — and it is clear why Sadiq thinks he can make a “statement” that he deserves to be the first skill position player with fewer than 1,000 career scrimmage yards in college to become a first-round pick since Ben Watson in 2004.
“Being versatile is a big part of my game,” Sadiq said. “I have a very mature mindset coming into this league.”
Mehringer balks at any notion that Sadiq didn’t practice hard, recounting all the times that he saw him in the treatment room tending to his hamstring or groin and sneaking in a 30-minute pre-practice warmup with a my-team-needs-me attitude.
“He takes nothing for granted,” Mehringer said. “Most 20-year-olds are not sitting around like he is saying, ‘I should ask Coach why Cooper Kupp had a triple crown receiving season [in 2021]. Let me go watch all his option routes because that’s something I can get better at.’ If I tell him he needs to get better at something, he gets hyper-focused and that’s exactly what he does. You have to reel him back in.”
The 6-foot-3, 245-pound Sadiq is 2 or 3 inches shorter than the prototypical NFL tight end. He also had six dropped passes, which will have scouts paying close attention to his on-field drills.
“There’s still errors and concentration drops which need to be fixed at this next level because, I mean, it’s just inexcusable,” Sadiq said. “But there’s definitely strengths in my game: there’s a lot of contested catches made, also a lot of diving catches.”
And that’s before getting to his blocking. Sadiq’s granite-carved physique is the sign of the big number to come Saturday when he saddles up to the 225-pound bench press.
“He’s an insanely good blocker because he is super strong and super twitchy,” Mehringer said. “Guys that are bigger than him, he gets on them faster. It’s not the most fun portion of the job — he can score the ball because he’s legitimately way faster than everybody else at his position — but is a 6-foot-3 tight end going to get in there and mix it up? He’s not scared at all.”
Will the 49ers see Sadiq as a George Kittle-Kyle Juszczyk hybrid? Will the Eagles use him to replace free agent Dallas Goedert? Will two-tight-end maximizers — head coach Jim Harbaugh and offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel — bring him to the Chargers?
Sadiq prepared like a perfectionist, Mehringer said, to diagram plays in formal Combine meetings because it’s the only way he knows.
“I thought it was going to be a bit more intense at times, kind of grilling you,” Sadiq said. “But some of them are just really just getting to know the staff and getting to see what personalities are like.”
One emerging NFL trend is teams using more and more “12” personnel — one running back and two tight ends — every year as a way to combat smaller defenses and slot cornerbacks. Could Sadiq be effective motioning pre-snap to create run and pass mismatches instead of becoming a glorified slot receiver?
“I’ve talked about him with different teams and they are like, ‘We already have a tight end,’ ” said NFL Network draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah, a former scout. “Yeah, but he can be the complementary tight end and he can block. Having tight ends who are well-rounded — even if they are the ‘move’ guy and not the hand-in-the-ground guy — I think teams are looking for that.”
Sadiq’s chance to show where it can be found starts now.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: nypost.com
