The New York Jets had a clear plan entering the 2026 offseason: fix the offense. Part of that fix was selecting Kenyon Sadiq in the middle of the first round of the NFL Draft.
In recent years, we’ve seen rookie tight ends burst onto the scene and be factors in fantasy football right away. Sadiq’s draft capital gives him a chance to do so, but his production profile and offensive situation may not.
Should You Draft Kenyon Sadiq in Fantasy Football?
Let’s start with the positives. Sadiq is one of the best athletes we’ve ever seen. Not just at tight end, but in the NFL. The man ran a 4.39 40 time at 6’3″, 241 pounds. His speed and burst scores are quite literally in the 100th percentile.
Sadiq has ideal size for a modern tight end. He has first-round draft capital. And he’s only 21 years old. This a player who had eight touchdowns and averaged 11.0 yards per catch at Oregon in 2025. He had a 31% reception share in the National Championship. There is undoubtedly a lot to like about Sadiq. So, that’s the good. Here’s the not-so-good.
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If Sadiq is such an incredible receiving threat, why didn’t he catch passes? Where’s the production? Across his three years at Oregon, Sadiq averaged 21.2 receiving yards per game. His breakout season came in his junior year and still saw him with just a 16.3% target share.
There are some serious Noah Fant vibes coming from Sadiq. Fant was a super athlete, early-declared who averaged just 30.3 receiving yards per game at Iowa. He’s been a fine pro, but undoubtedly has not lived up to the hype.
Credit to the fantasy community for not overrating Sadiq. His TE21 ADP is incredibly reasonable. There’s absolutely no risk at that price. In fact, Sadiq is almost certainly going undrafted in the majority of standard-sized fantasy leagues. That makes the process much easier. If we see signs of him breaking out, pick him up. But here’s why we may not, at least not for a while.
Sadiq is on the Jets, not exactly a prolific offense. The Jets have an implied team total of 18.9 points per game. It will be difficult for this offense to sustain the fantasy values of many players. And despite the negative outlook overall, the Jets do have a fair amount of fantasy-relevant players.
Breece Hall and Garrett Wilson are both Round 3/4 picks. Adonai Mitchell has been getting steam as a late-round dart throw. Plus, in addition to Sadiq, the Jets also used a first-round pick on Omar Cooper Jr.
Furthermore, the Jets still have Mason Taylor, who had a pretty solid rookie season. He’s a former second-round pick who looked like their tight end of the future, and likely was considered to be that guy until the team took Sadiq. Taylor is not going to disappear.
My fear with Sadiq is that he opens the season no greater than No. 4 on the target hierarchy. He will be behind Wilson, Mitchell, and Hall for sure, and maybe Cooper as well. Is a Frank Reich offense quarterbacked by Geno Smith really going to unlock the fantasy potential of all these players?
I don’t even think Sadiq starts in Week 1. I think it will be Taylor. The Jets will run plenty of 12 personnel with both on the field, but projecting Sadiq for anything more than a 50-60% snap share early in the season seems unrealistic.
The best-case scenario is Sadiq naturally improves throughout his rookie year and sees his snaps and routes rise similar to Colston Loveland last year. Remember, Loveland wasn’t really useful until the second half of the season because he couldn’t break free from Cole Kmet.
I have Sadiq at TE22 and can’t really imagine considering him in redraft leagues. If and when we see signs of a breakout during the season, I will do my best to get in front of it on the waiver wire. But in August, we don’t need to be drafting Sadiq.
Preseason Fantasy TE Rankings
- Brock Bowers | LV
- Trey McBride | ARI
- Colston Loveland | CHI
- Tyler Warren | IND
- Tucker Kraft | GB
- Sam LaPorta | DET
- George Kittle | SF
- Harold Fannin Jr. | CLE
- Kyle Pitts Sr. | ATL
- Isaiah Likely | NYG
- Travis Kelce | KC
- Dallas Goedert | PHI
- Jake Ferguson | DAL
- Mark Andrews | BAL
- Juwan Johnson | NO
- Dalton Kincaid | BUF
- Chig Okonkwo | WAS
- Brenton Strange | JAX
- Hunter Henry | NE
- Kenyon Sadiq | NYJ
- Dalton Schultz | HOU
- Greg Dulcich | MIA
- AJ Barner | SEA
- T.J. Hockenson | MIN
- Oronde Gadsden II | LAC
