The Oregon Ducks football team will miss some of the players who played their last game in 2023. But with all teams, the Ducks have some up-and-comers who are anxious and ready to make their own mark in the program.
Oregon has many young players who have the talent to make sure there’s no dropoff in 2024. One player in particular, tight end Kenyon Sadiq, makes offensive coordinator Will Stein excited for the present and the future.
“Kenyon has had a great camp so far in just two practices. He’s another guy who is a matchup nightmare with his speed in the slot,” Stein said. “You can line him up all over the field. It’ll be fun for me this year to try and get everyone the ball. It’s a good problem to have.”
The Ducks like to have players who are versatile, which makes them nearly impossible to prepare to defend for opponents. Sadiq is one of those players. Not only can he be a tight end, but Sadiq, who is 6-foot-3 and 220 pounds, can line up wide and be a nightmare for a cornerback. While he could split out wide when needed, for now the redshirt freshman is sticking in the TE meeting room.
“Coach Mehringer does as good of a job as anybody holistically teaching our offense,” Stein said. “If you told Kenyon to go play X, he’d run the right route because he knows the concepts. If you put him in the backfield to pass protect, he knows the protections in six-man pro. We cross-train guys. We teach the entirety of the offense to every player. But with Kenyon, we really believe we have a special player there.”
With Terrance Ferguson and Patrick Herbert returning for the 2024 season, opportunities could be hard to come by for Sadiq, but if he proves to be as dominant as we’re hearing in spring football, the coaches may not have a choice but get him the ball as much as they can.
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