By now, it’s becoming more than a rumor that Carolina is targeting offensive weapons early in the 2026 NFL Draft. The bottom ten ranked offense isn’t going to cut it if the Panthers want to build upon their playoff run.
A lot of the focus in recent weeks has been on another first-round wide receiver for the Carolina Panthers. However, receiver isn’t the only position that can bring the juice on offense.
One of the elements Carolina’s offense has lacked in recent years has been an explosive option over the middle of the field. While slot receivers can occasionally give the team some juice, nothing beats a truly athletic mismatch tight end.
The Panthers haven’t had this element on offense since the days of prime Greg Olsen, who was the first tight end in NFL history to record consecutive 1000 receiving yard seasons.
This year, there seems to be a favorite at the position to try to reach these heights. Let’s take a look at the standout Oregon tight end: Kenyon Sadiq.
Profile
Kenyon Sadiq’s football journey began in Idaho Falls, ID, at Skyline High School, where he competed in football, basketball, and track and field. His exploits as a football player, where he played both offense and defense, would earn him his 4th recruiting star.
Sadiq eventually committed and enrolled at Oregon, which may only be one state over, but is close to an eleven-hour drive. Through three seasons in Eugene, Sadiq would put up a somewhat underwhelming stat line, but his impact on the field goes beyond the box score.
In Sadiq’s last two seasons, Oregon would appear in the College Football Playoff, and in 2025 would reach the semifinal round before ultimately losing to the eventual champion Indiana Hoosiers.
Pros
To start, Sadiq is a phenomenal athlete. His NFL Combine performance aside, it’s easy to see how much of a mismatch Sadiq is for defenders. His size/frame, speed, and agility for the position are rare, and allow him to beat college defenders.
Along with his athletic traits, Sadiq is already an advanced route runner for the position. Even if the ball didn’t find him with a high frequency, Sadiq still beat his defenders with good movement.
Here, against Northwestern, Sadiq freezes the defender with a stutter, giving him all the space in the world to bring in the touchdown. I imagine most of Sadiq’s routes will come from the interior of the line of scrimmage in his rookie season, and Sadiq already knows how to set up defenders.
Not to belabor the point, but Sadiq is an athletic mismatch. The speed and explosive ability he displayed at the combine show up on tape. For college-level defensive backs that don’t have the range or size to reroute Sadiq, it’s not even a fair fight.
In general, Sadiq has reliable hands and is able to bring in contested catches on the rare occasion that defenders can keep up with him. While Sadiq posted a career-high drop rate of 9.0% this season, I expect this number to decrease once he’s in a situation with a more reliable middle of the field passer.
One of Sadiq’s potential areas of growth as a prospect is as a blocker. For someone who’s only had one real year of starting experience at the college level, Sadiq is already a pretty good run blocker, getting to his spots to help seal the edges and open up holes.
Sadiq’s compact frame and strong lower body give him the tools to displace in the run game if he gets clean contact on players. The next step in his blocking game will be to help in pass pro when called upon.
Cons
As mentioned above, Sadiq is still improving as a blocker. A lot of his improvement will simply come with more reps over time, but similarly to last year’s Colston Loveland, Sadiq currently wins a lot of blocking matchups largely in part to him being the better athlete.
Probably the biggest blemish in Sadiq’s profile, however, is his overall lack of production. Over the course of his career, Sadiq averages a measly 21.2 yards per game, which would be the lowest of any first-round tight end selected over the past decade.
That number jumped up to 40 yards per game in his lone year as a starter, but it is still an extremely low number and not what teams usually look for in first-round draft picks.
Part of this low usage can be explained by Oregon’s system during the Will Stein era, which prioritizes downfield play-action looks, but the reality is that dominant players demand touches, and Sadiq was unable to do that consistently this season.
To this point, Sadiq has never had a 100-yard receiving game in his career.
Perhaps more worrisome in this regard is that fellow Oregon tight end Jamari Johnson seemed to outproduce Sadiq down the stretch of the season, adding 190 yards and 2 touchdowns on 9 receptions compared to Sadiq’s 70 yards, 0 touchdowns, and 11 catches during Oregon’s three playoff matchups.
Teams will have to measure risk vs. potential when it comes to Sadiq as a first-round pick.
Team Fit
As far as fit goes, there probably isn’t a team in the NFL that needs an upgrade at tight end more than the Carolina Panthers. If that’s the direction the team went, Sadiq would be able to step in from day one and start as the go-to receiving tight end.
I think an interesting wrinkle of Sadiq vs. taking a wide receiver in Round 1 of the draft is how Carolina could deploy their offensive personnel. Dave Canales seemed to want to add a viable 12 personnel (1 running back, 2 tight ends) option to the offense, but the lack of a real receiving tight end always halted these plays.
Adding Sadiq could give Canales and new offensive play caller Brad Idzik the chance of using effective 12 personnel to mix up the run and pass games.
In my opinion, Sadiq would be an excellent fit for the starting offense and would still give the high-investment receivers a chance to start. However, the question of drafting Sadiq isn’t about fit - it’s about whether the value of a first-round tight.
If Sadiq is the pick in Round 1, he will immediately be around the 29th-32nd highest-paid tight end on an average annual value (AAV) basis. In a vacuum, this isn’t too bad. But if a wide receiver is making the 19th pick salary (~ $5 million), it would amount to the 45th highest wide receiver contract - a decent jump in contractual value.
This question of value becomes compounded when you take into consideration Sadiq’s lack of high-end production. Whichever team adds Sadiq will be taking on a significant level of risk.
We’re only 10 days from the first round of the NFL Draft. To this point, Carolina has brought in quite a few offensive weapons to evaluate. If Dan Morgan’s history of drafting players the team has gotten an extended look at holds true, Sadiq may not be the choice - unless he’s had a visit to Carolina that hasn’t been reported.
For more Panthers draft coverage, check out SportCLT’s draft guide. Included are a Draft Night Bingo Board generator, our staff’s favorite players in the draft, 100 Player Cards similar to the one above, and more.
SportCLT will also be having a live NFL Draft show. Tune in around 7:45pm EST on April 23rd to hear analysis about the first round of the NFL Draft.