Syracuse Football: Oronde Gadsden II ranked a top-20 national player for 2024 season

A new set of national rankings of the top players ahead of the 2024 season has Syracuse football tight end Oronde Gadsden II highly placed.

The X account CFBudge is rating the top-50 players around the country for the upcoming campaign, and per a recent post on social media, the 6-foot-5, 223-pound Gadsden checks in at No. 17.

That ranking, undeniably, is impressive. To me, it's also a little surprising, giving that Gadsden missed most of the 2023 season after suffering a Lisfranc injury during the Orange’s home win over Western Michigan last September.

Still, Syracuse football fans are eager to see Gadsden, a redshirt junior, pick up where he left off in a break-out 2022 campaign. That season, Gadsden caught 61 passes for 969 yards and scored six touchdowns through the air, while being named to the All-ACC first team.

Ahead of 2023, he received a ton of preseason accolades, with some national experts viewing him as a serious contender to land All-America honors. While that season was cut significantly short for Gadsden, he will prove a pivotal contributor for the 'Cuse in 2024, the team's inaugural term under first-year head coach Fran Brown.

Syracuse football tight end Oronde Gadsden II is in the top-20 nationwide, per one set of preseason rankings.

As a member of the 2021 recruiting cycle, Gadsden attended the American Heritage School in Plantation, Fla. Several recruiting services, within this class, rated him as three stars and a top-150 wide receiver nationally.

Gadsden, who is from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., switched from wide receiver to tight end before the 2022 season and, in that campaign, "shattered Syracuse’s single-season receptions and receiving yards record by a tight end," according to SU Athletics.

In 2024, Gadsden is certainly a headliner on the 'Cuse roster. At the same time, he's one of numerous talented receivers whom starting rising senior quarterback Kyle McCord, a four-star transfer from Ohio State, will have to target.

The Syracuse football receivers room for the upcoming term includes Gadsden and fellow tight-end returnee Dan Villari, along with returning wide receivers such as Umari Hatcher, Darrell Gill Jr. and Trebor Pena.

Wide receivers who have transferred to the Orange this off-season include Colorado State sophomore Justus Ross-Simmons, Georgia junior Jackson Meeks and Georgia freshman Yazeed Haynes.

Additionally, the team's 2024 recruiting class at the high school level boasts several talented receivers, whether tight ends or traditional WRs, some of whom are rated four stars and nationally ranked in the senior class.

And I'd be remiss not to mention All-ACC second-team performer and rising junior LeQuint Allen Jr., who rushed for more than 1,000 yards in 2023 and is a solid receiver, too.

It was a huge development when Gadsden decided to come back to the Hill for another season, and I envision a monster 2024 campaign for Oronde.