With each passing week, Los Angeles Chargers tight end Oronde Gadsden II is looking more and more like the biggest steal of the 2025 NFL Draft, as the fifth-round rookie has been on an absolute rampage as of late.
The Syracuse alum had his first genuine breakout game in the Bolts' wild Week 6 comeback victory over the Miami Dolphins, catching seven passes for 68 yards. But it was the following week where he truly put himself on the map, again catching seven passes but this time amassing 164 yards, and scoring his first NFL touchdown, albeit in a loss to the Indianapolis Colts. And last Thursday, in a 37-10 win over the Vikings, he caught all five passes thrown his way, gaining 77 yards and scoring his second touchdown.
Let's break this three-game stretch down a touch. For one, his 164 yards against the Colts were the fourth-most ever by a rookie tight end in a single game. Secondly, with a 53-yard catch against Indy and a 40-yarder against Minnesota, Gadsden is the only tight end in the league this season with multiple catches of 40-plus yards. He's also the only Chargers rookie since 2000 to accomplish this. Lastly, he's just the third rookie tight end since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970 with 300 or more receiving yards in a three-game span. Yeah, he's ridiculous.
Overall this season, Gadsden has tallied 27 catches for 385 yards, the latter being good for the fifth-most among tight ends, trailing only Tyler Warren (492), Travis Kelce (474), Tucker Kraft (469), and Trey McBride (421). Now imagine what his numbers would look like had the Chargers not weirdly made him a healthy scratch for the first two games of the year or made him a bigger part of the offense in his first three games, a stretch in which he was targeted a combined 11 times.
Oronde Gadsden II could've had a shot at history if the Chargers didn't make him a healthy scratch
Honestly, we could be talking about Gadsden having a genuine shot at the rookie record for receiving yards by a tight end, which belonged to Mike Ditka for 63 years until Brock Bowers set a new mark just last year with 1,194 yards for the Las Vegas Raiders.
Think about this. In Gadsden's last three games, as mentioned, he's gone for 68, 164, and 77 yards, which averages out to 103 yards per game. Multiply that by 17 games and you get 1,751 yards, which would obviously shatter Bowers' record.
But let's get real. He's not going to have 164 yards very often, right? So, let's cut that in half and roll with 68, 82, and 77, which averages out to 75.7 yards per game, which is far more realistic. Take that number, multiply it by 17, and he still breaks the record with 1,287 yards.
Now, let's take that 75.7 average, which genuinely seems like a reasonable figure with how he's being utilized, and add it to what he's already done. The Chargers have nine games remaining, so if he can that figure, he'll add 681 yards to the 385 he's already amassed, which would give him 1,066 for the year.
That number obviously puts him short of Bowers, but it would make Gadsden just the fourth rookie tight end to hit the 1,000-yard mark, joining Bowers, Ditka (1,076 for the Bears in 1961) and Kyle Pitts (1,026 for the Falcons in 2021).