Before I start raising some uncomfortable questions about uber-athletic tight end prospect Kenyon Sadiq, I’d like to confirm that I’m fully aware of his world-historic 2026 NFL Combine performance.
Sadiq, in case you missed it, logged the fastest tight end 40-yard dash time in Combine history (4.39 seconds). His speed score, naturally, was 100th percentile, as was his burst score. Sadiq’s catch radius was the only real Combine question mark, as the 21-year-old former Oregon Duck posted a mere 99th percentile mark in that category.
The young man who looks like a bespectacled Roman soldier is not the perfect tight end athlete. But he’s close.
It’s in the spreadsheets where Sadiq’s NFL prospects might be questioned as we approach the 2026 draft. The metrics are not entirely kind to the Combine-destroying tight end. He sure looks the part of an on-field cheat code, but I think NFL teams and fantasy football managers would be remiss to ignore some spreadsheet-based concerns about Sadiq. I thought the same about Travis Hunter, whose spreadsheet profile left almost everything to be desired.
I’d like to acknowledge, before getting into the statistical nitty gritty, that the analytics are clear about positional speed: While straight-line speed for a wide receiver doesn’t matter at all, it very much does matter for a tight end. It’s why I’m not discounting a best-case scenario for Sadiq in which he’s drafted by a patient, well-run team who develops him into a real-life NFL tight end. As he showed at the Combine, the tools — all the tools — are there.
Yards Per Route Run
I’ll just get this out of the way: Sadiq’s yards per route run are not even among the top 10 tight ends in this year’s draft class. His 1.88 YRR in 2025 is in the range of tight ends who (almost) certainly won’t be drafted at all in 2026.
Sadiq’s 2025 YRR — a solid if not all-encompassing measure of a pass catcher’s efficiency — fell outside the top 25 tight ends in all of FBS. Perhaps that’s related to Sadiq being graded by Pro Football Focus as the nation’s 21st best receiving tight end out of 45 qualifying players.
As ball knowers certainly know, Sadiq had a couple blow-up performances at Oregon in 2025. That included a four-catch, 80-yard, two-touchdown outing against Rutgers and an eight-catch, 96-yard, one-touchdown performance against Minnesota. But he also had six games with a YRR below two, a not-great mark. In Oregon’s two postseason games, Sadiq averaged a bleak 0.68 yards per route run, turning nine grabs into 51 scoreless yards.
For reference: Last year’s elite tight end prospects — Tyler Warren and Colston Loveland — had yards per route run numbers among the top-six tight ends in FBS. Harold Fannin, a 2025 football nerd favorite, was second in the country in yards per route run. Brock Bowers was top three in his final collegiate season. There is a chasm between the per-route efficiency of those tight ends and Sadiq.
Yards After Catch
Surely Sadiq, the fastest tight end to ever play the game, was good and productive after the catch during three seasons at Oregon, where he racked up a grand total of 892 receiving yards on 80 receptions. Like Jonnu Smith and other fast, rolling-ball-of-butcher-knives tight ends, Sadiq was surely a YAC machine in college. Right?
Well, no. Not exactly. Sadiq last year averaged a meager 5.1 yards after the catch per reception, not even a top 100 mark among college tight ends. It’s one of the lowest YAC per catch marks of the 2026 tight end class. Probably this has something to do with his relatively high average depth of target (9.2) but it’s concerning that such an explosive athlete wasn’t more productive with the football in his hands.
Sadiq’s YAC per catch was worse when operating from the slot in 2025. On 30 slot targets last season he averaged just 3.2 yards after the catch per reception. That ranked 22nd out of 33 qualifying tight ends in this year’s draft class.
Targets Per Route Run
In 2025, Sadiq was targeted on a less-than-hateful 20 percent of his pass routes. That’s well short of the target per route rates of other 2026 tight end draft prospects, especially Eli Stowers, who saw a target on a heady 28.2 percent of his targets in 2025 at Vanderbilt (more on him below). Fellow Oregon tight end Jamari Johnson was targeted on 19 percent of his pass routes in 2025 and outdid Sadiq in every efficiency metric. It’s a bleak story for Sadiq.
Sadiq’s target commanding wasn’t all that different in 2024, when he saw 27 looks over 14 games at Oregon. He saw a target on 18.4 percent of his routes that season, well short of what you might call elite.
It all adds up to something that smells awfully fraudulent.
However, the spreadsheets are a bit kinder to these tight ends:
Eli Stowers (Vanderbilt)
Yards Per Route Run
Leading all FBS tight ends in receiving yards (769), Stowers was second among tight ends with a 2.55 yards per route run. He trailed only Arkansas’ Rohan Jones, who notched a YRR above five — a downright ludicrous mark — on a small sample size of 25 targets.
It wasn’t the first time Stowers demonstrated elite per-route efficiency. In 2024 he ranked among the nation’s top 10 tight ends in YRR, besting Terrance Ferguson and Oronde Gadsden II, among others. The spreadsheets (strongly) suggest the lumbering Stowers — who had a 100th percentile burst score and a 99th percentile catch radius at the Combine — is a reliably efficient pass catcher.
And unlike Sadiq, Stowers actually has a production profile, combining for 1,407 yards and nine scores over his final two seasons at Vanderbilt. Stowers, unlike Sadiq, did stuff on the field.
Yards After Catch
After posting top 10 YAC per reception numbers in 2024 (8.2), Stowers in his final collegiate season fell off big time in 2025, averaging 6.1 yards after the catch per reception. Sometimes this happens when a pass catcher sees a glut of targets, as Stowers did in 2025, with 85 targets over 12 games at Vanderbilt.
Maybe this is being too picky by half. It was Stowers, after all, who led the 2026 tight end class with 377 yards after the catch in 2025.
Targets Per Route Run
It’s here where Stowers shines. He saw a target on 28.2 percent of his pass routes in 2025, among the highest rates for tight ends in FBS. It was hardly a fluke. Over his two years at Vanderbilt he was targeted on 26.9 percent of his routes. For context: Brock Bowers saw a target on 26 percent of his routes during his final year at Georgia. It makes one think.
Eli Stowers is one tough cookie to bring to the ground pic.twitter.com/VGKpUtuam8
— Jeremy (@Popes_FF) March 19, 2026
Vanderbilt’s offense was designed to get Stowers targets, many of which were of the high-valuable variety: in the middle of the field and in the red zone. That, I think, is a good sign for his NFL prospects assuming he lands in an offense that will have him running consistent routes.
Justin Joly (North Carolina State)
Yards Per Route Run
At 1.8 yards per route run, Joly ranked 18th out of 45 qualifying FBS tight ends in 2025 while earning Pro Football Focus’ sixth-highest tight end receiving grade.
Joly, who had the seventh most targets among college tight ends in 2025, was just a smidge behind Sadiq in YRR while besting him in another crucial metric (more below).
Yards After Catch
The hefty Joly was not much for creating after the catch at NC State. Last season he ranked 41st out of 45 qualifying tight ends in YAC per reception (3.7). This marked a massive drop from Joly’s 6.2 YAC per reception in 2024.
It’s noteworthy that the Wolfpack used Joly in a decidedly different role in 2024. He ran 63 percent of his routes from the slot — compared to 47 percent in 2025 — and had an average depth of target of 10.1, far higher than his final season aDOT (7.6).
Joly in short was far more effective from the slot than he was from an in-line position. His YAC numbers bear that out.
Targets Per Route Run
This is where Joly pops for a guy who won’t require a premium draft pick this spring. In 2025 he saw a target on 25.2 percent of his pass routes, one of the highest rates in this draft class.
Joly’s target per route rate in 2025 was a far cry from his meager 15.4 percent rate in 2024. That’s what happens when a pass catcher sees a big-time decrease in aDOT and air yards per target, as Joly did in his final collegiate season.
Over four college season — two at UConn, two at NC State — Joly saw a target on 21 percent of his routes. That’s not hateful, exactly.
Eli Raridon (Notre Dame)
Yards Per Route Run
With 43 receptions over his final 28 collegiate games, Raridon proved somewhat efficient on a per route basis, ranking fifth among tight ends in the 2026 class with a 2.23 YRR. From the slot, Raridon was sixth best in yards per route run among tight ends in this draft class
The monster tight end -- standing at 6-foot-7 and weighing 252 pounds -- just cracked the top 10 FBS tight ends overall in yards per route. Raridon’s metrics are tough to interpret considering he had just one season of real production at Notre Dame and he saw more than four targets in just three games in 2025.
Yard After Catch
YAC was not exactly Raridon’s strong suit in 2025. His 5.8 yards after the catch per reception ranked 58th out of 100 qualifying FBS tight ends, and near the bottom among tight ends in the 2026 NFL Draft class.
Raridon’s two big games in 2025 — one in Week 1 and the other in Week 12 — came with lots of YAC, however. Against the Hurricanes on opening day Raridon went for 59 yards after the catch on five grabs, and against Pitt in Week 12 he had 47 yards after the catch on six receptions. He’s a big man who appears tough to take down.
Targets Per Route
Raridon was targeted on a decent 20.3 percent of his pass routes in 2025, a middling mark but one that should be seen as encouraging considering he only had one year of real college usage.
Raridon over four seasons at Notre Dame was targeted on an ordinary 16.3 percent of his routes. He doesn’t appear to be a particularly adept target commander. So it goes.
Michael Trigg (Baylor)
Yards Per Route Run
The 23-year-old Trigg is an exciting prospect because he’s one of the rare tight ends who did that thing where he regularly racked up catches and yards and did it efficiently. I know this is not what excites the Draft Industrial Complex. I enjoy a tight end who has produced though.
Trigg had 1,419 yards over five college seasons along with 14 touchdowns, nine of which came in his final two seasons at Baylor. Trigg’s 2025 YRR ranked 15th out of 172 qualifying tight ends. Trigg in 2024 was 18th among all tight ends in YRR, neck and neck with Gadsden II and the aforementioned Joly.
Trigg’s final-season YRR wasn’t boosted by a few explosive games (though he did have a 155-yard outing on 13 targets in Week 6 against Kansas State). He was steadily efficient throughout 2025.
Yards After Catch
There’s not much to see here. Last season, Trigg ranked 116th out of 172 qualifying tight ends with a YAC per reception of 4.5. Perhaps that’s not a surprise considering Trigg’s sky-high aDOT of 11.3, the third highest in the nation.
Targets Per Route Run
Trigg was nothing short of a legit target commander in his final season at Baylor, seeing a target on a heady 26.7 percent of his pass routes, the highest rate in the 2026 class. Running almost 70 percent of his routes from the slot, Trigg was tied with Stowers for the most tight end targets in college football (85).
That didn’t come out of nowhere either. In 2024, Trigg posted a 23.8 percent target per route over 11 games as a rotational player in the Baylor offense. If he can combine this target-commanding ability with a high aDOT in the pros, Trigg could be an intriguing later round selection.
