N.Y. Jets make this Idaho native a first-round draft pick. Here’s what he brings
Idaho-developed tight ends are suddenly a hot commodity in the NFL.
The New York Jets selected Kenyon Sadiq with the 16th overall pick in the NFL Draft on Thursday, making the Idaho Falls native the second straight former Idaho high school star selected in the first round. Gooding’s Colston Loveland, another tight end, went 10th overall to the Chicago Bears last year.
“He’s a rare talent,” ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. said on the network’s draft broadcast. “And he’s young. He’s developing. He’s got to get a little better as a blocker, and he will. He’s got to eliminate some of the drops, and he will work on that.
“But he’s a chess piece. You can move him around. He’s more than a tight end. He’s an athlete. He can go out wide. He can play anywhere.”
The 2023 Skyline High grad stood as the consensus top tight end in this year’s draft class after wrapping up his junior season at Oregon. The 6-foot-3, 241-pound prospect then erased any doubt by turning in one of the best performances by a tight end in the history of the NFL combine.
Nicknamed “Sadiq the Freak,” he ran the fastest 40-yard dash by a tight end at 4.39 seconds, breaking the previous record held by Vernon Davis in 2006 and Dorin Dickerson in 2010. He also turned in the second-best vertical jump (43.5 inches) and third-best broad jump (11 feet, 1 inches) by a tight end in the event’s history.
“As I watched him play, you know what I thought of? I thought of Vernon Davis,” ESPN analyst Booger McFarland said on the broadcast. “A tight end that size, with that kind of speed, he’s not going to be attached to the formation. You’re gonna split him out.
“He’s too big for safeties and linebackers, too fast for the other guys that are going to line up and cover him. I think he’s a weapon. He’s going to be a matchup nightmare.”
Sadiq, 21, had one of the most dominant Idaho high school careers in recent memory while leading Skyline to three straight state titles. Idaho coaches voted him the All-Idaho Player of the Year in what’s now the 5A classification in both 2021 and 2022.
The former wide receiver racked up a combined 141 catches for 2,469 yards and 37 touchdowns those two years. He also was a dominant force in the secondary and as Skyline’s punter and kicker.
The prolific career made him a rare four-star recruit from Idaho and a top 100 prospect in the nation by 247Sports. He graduated from Skyline early and enrolled at Oregon, where he played in every game as a freshman before finishing as one of three finalists for the John Mackey Award last fall as college football’s top tight end.
Sadiq declined to attend the draft in Pittsburgh, instead celebrating with friends and family in Ammon. ESPN’s broadcast also cut to a cheering crowd across town at Idaho Falls’ Eagle Rock Middle Schools, which hosted a draft watch party due to maintenance issues at Skyline High School.
The Jets’ selection makes Sadiq the sixth Idaho high school graduate selected in the first round of the NFL Draft since 2000. Others include Loveland, Salmon River’s Leighton Vander Esch (Cowboys, 2018), Marsing’s Shea McClellin (Bears, 2012), Fruitland’s Jordan Gross (Panthers, 2003) and Nampa’s Rob Morris (Colts, 2000).
This story was originally published April 23, 2026 at 8:19 PM.
