Draft day is surreal for athletes realizing their professional dreams. When they get the call, a cocktail of emotions often pour out from them. A corresponding feeling can be disbelief, and perhaps that’s been accentuated since the rise in prank calls prospects have received while waiting for their name to be called.
Former Oregon tight end Kenyon Sadiq thought he was getting one of those Thursday night when the New York Jets ringed him midway through the first round of the 2026 NFL Draft.
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Here’s how it went down, when the Jets were on the clock with the No. 16 overall pick, the second of their three selections on Day 1 of this year’s draft:
“Kenyon, how are you doing? This is Darren Mougey with the New York Jets,” Mougey, the team’s second-year general manager said in a moment documented by the organization.
“I’m doing good, how are you?” Sadiq said.
“You doing good? We’re gonna pick you right here and make you a New York Jet.”
Sadiq responded: “OK, I appreciate it.”
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After Mougey handed the phone to Jets head coach Aaron Glenn, the two exchanged a few words, before an emotional Sadiq admitted something.
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“I was thinking it was going to be a prank call for a second,” Sadiq said.
Glenn chuckled and reassured his newest offensive weapon, saying, “We’re not pranking you, brother. You’re going to be a Jet. You’re going to be a Jet. Trust me on that.”
Glenn said the team had been targeting Sadiq — who had been touted as the top tight end in the 2026 draft — for a while, and the exuberant reaction and encouraging words later offered by offensive coordinator Frank Reich seemed to verify that statement.
Sadiq is coming off a stellar 2025 campaign with the Ducks. He caught 51 passes for 560 yards and 8 touchdowns for an Oregon team that reached the College Football Playoff semifinals. The 6-foot-3, 241-pound tight end ran a blistering 4.39 40-yard dash at the NFL combine and showcased his receiver-like route-running ability in the collegiate ranks.
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Sadiq’s trepidation answering the phone on Thursday makes sense, especially after a pick that never happened became part of the biggest story of last year’s draft.
At the time, Jax Ulbrich, the then-21-year-old son of Atlanta Falcons defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich, helped pull off a prank call, in which someone he was with impersonated New Orleans Saints general manager Mickey Loomis while on the phone with Shedeur Sanders, pretending that the Colorado star was being picked 40th overall before revealing that the quarterback was being spoofed.
After the childish trick, which resulted in the Falcons and Jeff Ulbrich being fined, Sanders’ draft slide continued until the Cleveland Browns took him in the fifth round.
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The Sanders prank call isn’t the only one in recent years that’s disturbed the positivity that normally swarms the draft. In an attempt to limit access to prospects, the NFL made a change this year that entrusted a single point of contact in each franchise with prospects’ contact information, according to The Athletic.
Interestingly enough, the Arizona Cardinals seemed to have trouble contacting former Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love on Thursday night. Cardinals general manager Monti Ossenfort said they had the wrong phone number for Love and had to track down the right one before making him the No. 3 overall pick.
Thirteen picks later, Sadiq got his call — from the Jets, and it was indeed for real.
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