Kenyon Sadiq – Syndication Server

Kenyon Sadiq could prove to be a ‘matchup nightmare’ for teams in 2024

Oregon offensive coordinator Will Stein is excited about the versatility and talent of tight end Kenyon Sadiq.

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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Spring Position Preview: Veteran experience leads athletic group of tight ends in Eugene

With Terrance Ferguson and Patrick Herbert leading the way, the Oregon Ducks have veterans leading an athletic group of tight ends.

After a couple of long off-season months, the grass is starting to grow and trees are getting ready to bloom. Spring is coming in Eugene, and with it comes the long-awaited return of football for the Oregon Ducks. A lot will look different in this new year for Dan Lanning and his team, with several of last year’s top players moving onto the NFL, including guys like Bo Nix, Troy Franklin, Bucky Irving, Jackson Powers-Johnson, and Brandon Dorlus. All of that is not to mention the fact that the Ducks are joining the Big Ten, and have a new-look conference to get used to on top of a spot in the expanded College Football Playoff to strive for.

It’s safe to say that there are a lot of things to talk about going into this spring season, and a lot of storylines to discuss. To get things started, we want to give a position-by-position breakdown of Oregon’s current roster, getting readers up to date on which players left, which players are returning, and what the overall outlook is going into the spring.

Already this week, we’ve covered the quarterbacks, running backs, and wide receivers. Now let’s move onto the tight ends.

A year ago, the Oregon Ducks were in a relatively tough spot at the tight end position. While Terrance Ferguson was returning after a strong sophomore campaign, an injury during spring practices sidelined him for a period of time. The future was a bit unknown as far as Patrick Herbert’s ceiling went, and the transfer of Moliki Matavao left the position group a bit thin.

Fast forward to this year, and the TE position is looking like one of the strongest groups on the Oregon roster, with Ferguson returning for a fourth season that could be filled with broken Oregon records. Behind him, Herbert is looking as healthy and productive as he ever has in his college career, and Kenyon Sadiq is verging on a breakout season, representing the most athleticism we’ve seen from a Ducks’ TE in quite some time.

It’s safe to say that TE coach Drew Mehringer has things going in the right direction. Here’s a complete breakdown of how things stand at the position, and the names and storylines that you need to know.

2024 Tight End Outlook: Ducks have talent, but could use more depth

The Oregon Ducks have a lot of talent at the TE position going into the 2024 season, but they could stand to add a bit of depth.

The 2023 season is now behind us, and while there is still a bowl game to be played — The Fiesta Bowl vs. The Liberty Flames — Dan Lanning and the Oregon Ducks are working hard on the construction of their roster and hitting the transfer portal in attempts to formulate what this team will look like going into the 2024 season, the team’s first year in the Big Ten Conference. While they work on bringing new players in via the transfer portal, we want to look at the future breakdown of each position, detailing current players on the roster, incoming recruits, and potential targets on the market right now. Earlier this week, we broke down the future of the quarterback position, took a look at the wide receiver room in 2024, and dove into the RB room. N let’s focus on the tight ends.

In the new Oregon offense over the past couple of years, we’ve seen the tight end position grow in value for the Ducks, with players like Terrance Ferguson and Patrick Herbert utilized heavily in the game plan for Will Stein.

That shouldn’t be expected to change at all going forward, but it will be interesting to see how the personnel at the position does change. At the moment, Oregon has four tight ends in rotation, led by Ferguson, but there’s a chance the room looks quite a bit different at the start of the 2024 season. With potential NFL Draft decisions, impending transfers, and incoming freshmen, here’s a glance at the outlook for the tight ends going into next season:

Transfer TE Casey Kelly is integrating into the Ducks’ offense quickly

“Casey is a super tough kid. He’s a guy who comes in with experience, so the learning curve with that is much smaller.”

Casey Kelly was one of 15 transfers that Oregon brought in this past offseason, and so far things seem to be working out. Recently, tight-end coach Drew Mehringer spoke with the media and had plenty of good things to say about the newest member of Oregon’s TE group.

For the first three seasons of his college career, Kelly was a player for the Ole Miss Rebels. In 2022, Kelly played in the most games of his career but had the lowest production, due to Michael Trigg becoming the primary TE, which likely contributed to his decision to leave. When speaking about Kelly, Mehringer highlighted that it was former Ole Miss Rebels who turned him on to Kelly.

“He was a guy that was out there. I knew that he was out there, but in this day and age in the portal, you’ve got to do a lot of research on the players,” Mehringer said. “Thankfully, Wilson Love, our strength coach, had been there and knew him personally. Then I asked Tysheem [Johnson] ‘Tell me about this guy’. Both of those guys had great things to say. Everything I was told is everything this guy has been. He’s been awesome. We’re super glad to have him.”

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When Kelly joined the Ducks, there was a lot of uncertainty surrounding the TE position for 2023, due to a spring injury to Terrance Ferguson, the team’s No. 1 TE in 2022. It seems now that Ferguson will be ready for 2023 week one, but with how much Oregon used multiple-TE sets last season, depth at the position will be key. The Ducks also added freshman Kenyon Sadiq for 2023 who has shown promise early.

Even though he’s only been with the team for a short time, Mehringer had high praise for the quickness with which Kelly has fit into place.

“Casey is a super tough kid. He’s a physical player and a smart football player,” Mehringer said. “He’s obviously played a lot of football. He’s played in some big games and stuff like that. He’s a guy who comes in with experience, so the learning curve with that is much smaller. The terminology might be a little different, right? But he’s a guy who can integrate himself in there pretty quickly. Like I said he’s played a lot of good football. He’s got a really good skillset, but he brings a lot of energy into that room. Last year we played with some guys who had played a bunch, so to have another one in the room right there that competes and levels up our depth and potentially be a starter is fantastic.”

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It will be interesting to see what the Ducks’ depth chart at TE looks like come week one. I’d be surprised if Ferguson wasn’t the defacto starter, but after that, things are up in the air. Coaches have had high praise for both Sadiq and Kelly, and there is also Patrick Herbert to consider. Regardless of who sees the most snaps, Bo Nix should have plenty of good TE options to target all season, both in the flats as well as up the seams.

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No. 7 TE in the class of 2025, Jack VanDorselaer names Oregon among his top schools

As we near the end of the 2024 summer recruiting cycle, coaches will begin to look to next year’s class of recruits. One of those 2025 prospects, Jack VanDorselaer, recently showed interest in the Oregon Ducks, when he included them among his top nine schools.

VanDorselaer is listed as a wide receiver and tight end hybrid. At 6’5″ and 230 lbs, VanDorselaer would likely be fully a TE in college, but if he were to lose some weight, he could also become a high-point, possession WR for QBs to target over the middle of the field, and at his back shoulder along the sideline.

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VanDorselaer is a 4-star recruit as of right now according to 247 Sports, though there is plenty of time for that ranking to move in either direction. Currently, 247 Sports has him ranked as the No. 7 TE in his class. Schools seem to agree with 247’s assessment because VanDorselaer has drawn the interest of top-quality programs such as Georgia, Alabama, USC, and more.

Since VanDorselaer is part of the class of 2025, we have to look further into the future to estimate his place in the team, and I have to make guesses as to what the team will need then. From my perspective, Terrance Ferguson will be an NFL TE by the start of the 2025 season, and Kenyon Sadiq (or someone else that gets picked up along the way) will be Oregon’s lead TE. That would leave room for someone like VanDorselaer to grow because he could get reps early in his career, while also getting to study under a talented TE such as Sadiq.

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The most important tight ends to know in the 2023 Pac-12 season

The importance of having a dominant TE is trickling from the NFL down to college. Here are some of the TE names you need to know in the Pac-12.

As we continue our preview of the 2023 college football season in the Pac-12 conference, we are going to shift our focus from individual teams to individual positions. The last several weeks have been spent picking apart each school out west, finding where they improved the most over the offseason, and identifying what realistic expectations should be for them going forward.

You can see them all here: Arizona Wildcats — Arizona State Sun Devils — California Golden Bears — Colorado Buffaloes — Oregon State Beavers — Stanford Cardinal — UCLA Bruins — USC Trojans — Utah Utes — Washington Huskies — Washington State Cougars

Now we’re going to look at position groups as a whole in the conference. Whether it’s a quarterback or a linebacker, a punter or a safety, there are dozens of highly talented players out west. We want to go through them all, position group by position group, and highlight some of the most important names that fans should know at each spot.

— Quarterbacks — Wide Receivers — Running Backs —

Tight end is a position that has evolved over the years. Originally, the position consisted primarily of blockers who occasionally had the option to release from their block and be a check-down option for their QB. Nowadays, TEs are some of the most important players on the field. They are often their QBs favorite target, either due to the consistency they bring in short-yardage situations, their big play potential or a combination of the two.

Today, I examine the most important TEs in the Pac-12 for the 2023 season. Some teams have multiple representatives and some have none, both of which are indicative of how that team uses TEs, as well as how talented the team is in general.

Here are some names that fans should familiarize themselves with as we get ready for the season to start.

Patrick Herbert draws praise from Dan Lanning after stepping into larger role

With TE depth an issue this spring, Patrick Herbert is stepping up. Dan Lanning has taken notice.

That whole Herbert-to-Herbert dream seems so long ago.

Oregon quarterback Justin Herbert throwing to his younger brother Patrick never occurred for one reason or another. But it looks like the younger Herbert, now a junior, should get plenty of passes thrown his way in the coming months.

Due to an injury to Terrance Ferguson that knocked him out of spring practice, Herbert is now No. 1 on the tight end depth chart for the spring game. The 6-foot-5, 250-pounder has a chance to become the player everyone thought he would be coming out of Eugene’s Sheldon High School.

Herbert showed glimpses of his talent in 2022, but the depth chart at tight end was loaded with players such as Terrance Ferguson and Moliki Matavao. Ferguson is injured and Matavao went to UCLA, which gives Herbert an extended look.

Oregon head coach Dan Lanning already knows Herbert’s skill set and what he brings to the table after what he saw in 2022.

“Patrick probably doesn’t get enough credit for how consistent of a player he’s been when his number was called last year,” Lanning said. “He did exactly what we asked him to do. I know he knows that he has a role to embrace and a lot more to do for. Then also seeing a young guy like Kenyon (Sadiq) step up. It’s been really beneficial for us as well.”

Sadiq might be the answer at tight end in the future, but for the present, it’s Herbert. It’s the same position Herbert was in just a few seasons ago. At that time, although Herbert battled injuries, it gave him a chance to redshirt and learn the college game. Fortunately for the Ducks, the tight end position was plentiful.

That’s not the case in 2023 with Herbert being the only healthy tight end who has played a snap of football in college. Hopefully, Ferguson can get healthy over the summer and replenish the depth chart. If not, Herbert and Sadiq will have to grow quickly.

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Drew Mehringer talks Terrance Ferguson, Kenyon Sadiq, and Oregon’s talented TE room

Following Saturday’s scrimmage, Drew Mehringer talked TE depth, and a lot about the upside of freshman Kenyon Sadiq.

As spring practice continues on in Eugene, we’ve had the opportunity to talk to more coaches on the roster outside of head coach Dan Lanning.

On Saturday, it was time to talk to tight ends coach Drew Mehringer, who was made available for the first time since last fall. There was a lot to talk about, including what took place in the scrimmage that the Ducks went through on Saturday morning in Autzen Stadium.

On top of that, Mehringer has a talented group of TEs, though short on scholarship depth. We discussed that, and what its been like working with Will Stein as the new offensive coordinator. Here are some of the best quotes from that conversation.

Oregon Spring Ball Player Spotlight: Kenyon Sadiq’s instant-impact opportunity

Kenyon Sadiq is supremely talented and comes to Eugene at a position of need. Can he prove his worth this spring?

The Oregon Ducks will be taking the practice field and getting the spring football season later this week. This fact has brought a ton of excitement to Eugene.

Why? Because after the successful and encouraging 2022 season under Dan Lanning, there seems to be more anticipation surrounding this program than we’ve seen in the past few seasons. The Ducks have a Heisman contender at quarterback, a potential Biletnikoff contender at wide receiver, and a running back group that could be among the best in the nation next season. On the defensive side of the ball, there are some key returning starters in the front seven, a couple of promising up-and-coming players in the secondary, and a handful of intriguing transfer-portal players who could end up making a massive difference for Oregon. On top of all of that, the Ducks are fresh off of back-to-back top-15 recruiting classes, stacking the roster with young, unproven talent.

It’s safe to say that there are a handful of guys that we can’t wait to see take the field in Eugene.

We started our in-depth look at some of the most intriguing players by taking a deep dive into QB Austin Novosad and what he means for the Ducks. We’re going to continue by putting the spotlight on incoming 2023 TE Kenyon Sadiq, one of the top-rated players in Oregon’s most recent class.

Here’s our breakdown of the dynamic athlete who could end up carving out a sizeable role as a true freshman.

Ducks well represented among 2023 Gatorade Players of the Year

The Gatorade Players of the Year were announced for all 50 states on Friday, and the Ducks were well represented.

There are many ways to determine who the best recruits in high school sports are each year, but one of the best ways that have come about over the past few decades is to look at who was named the Gatorade Player of the Year.

Gatorade highlights dozens of spectacular athletes across all sports, and they award the top player from each state year after year. While this isn’t a perfect way to determine who the top 50 players in the nation are, since there are often multiple deserving players in each state, it goes to show who the most talented player in all 50 states is.

In the world of football, the 50 winners were announced on Friday, January 6, and it turns out that the Oregon Ducks are well represented. We wanted to celebrate those players for their achievements and look at a couple of other players — one potential future Duck, and another former Duck — that made the cut as well.