Evan Engram signed a two-year, $23 million deal ($16.5 million guaranteed) with the Broncos on Wednesday afternoon and will immediately be the TE1 for a Denver team that ranked second to last in football with a 13.1% team TE target share in 2024. Engram’s efficiency has tapered off in recent seasons and he missed the second half of last year with a torn labrum, but it’s a fairly good match here with Sean Payton. Let’s dig into the fantasy outlook.
EVAN ENGRAM
- Engram turns 31 years old in September and has only averaged more than 6.9 yards per target twice in eight pro seasons. That’s a fairly low bar to clear efficiency-wise and one would think his advanced age only hurts in that area, but he does have a clear runway to big volume again in Denver. This is a decent investment into a TE1, and Engram’s only competition for snaps comes from Adam Trautman and Lucas Krull.
- With that being said, Engram is not your normal TE and requires fairly unique usage. He’s a non-blocker and doesn’t get targeted downfield often — his career average depth of target is 6.4, and he’s only topped 6.1 once in any individual season since 2021. Engram churned his way to high-end fantasy seasons in Jacksonville on targets alone.
- Now, with that being said, this is a pretty ideal spot to make that work if he can stay in Payton’s good graces. The Coachspeak Index noted that Payton said, “We need a joker” as an offseason need for Denver and he’s referenced a desire to fill this role multiple times over the past six months. The joker role in Payton’s offense is basically a player who works in the middle of the field with easy touches. Engram is certainly capable of that. His role in Denver won’t ask him to block ever (as usual with him) and will get him peppered with targets across the middle of the field. That’s exactly his skill set.
- Payton did refer to Greg Dulcich as his joker before completely casting him aside, but one would think Engram has a good chance to keep this role after being hand-picked by Payton and getting a significant financial commitment. Still, at age 31 coming off an injury-plagued season, perhaps there’s some risk he doesn’t live up to expectations. But he should have the do-it-all, middle-of-the-field role to himself early in the year.
BRENTON STRANGE
- Strange has quietly had a great start to free agency with the Jaguars immediately adding Hunter Long and Johnny Mundt, two guys who won’t threaten Strange’s receiving role at all. Jaguars OC Grant Udinski is familiar with Mundt from their time together in Minnesota, but Mundt never caught on as anything more than a T.J. Hockenson fill-in and figures to do more of the same in Jacksonville. There’s still plenty of time for the Jaguars to add another tight end, but Jacksonville has basically overhauled their entire receiving corps — Christian Kirk and Engram cut, Dyami Brown over Gabe Davis — and have made no effort yet to replace Strange.
OTHER BRONCOS PASS CATCHERS
- Denver’s pass-catching group outside of Courtland Sutton was a mess last year. Sutton returns as the clear top pass catcher, though his 25% target share in 2024 could drop with increased target competition from Engram.
- However, the WR2-5 cluster is the group that’s really in danger. Devaughn Vele missed lots of time possibly as a healthy scratch but possibly with injured ribs, while Lil’Jordan Humprey, Troy Franklin, and Marvin Mims Jr. all rotated with each other (and Vele when healthy). Vele is the slot guy whose snaps are most in jeopardy with Engram in town, especially considering he was a seventh-round pick in 2024.
- Mims remained absolutely electric last year when given opportunities but still couldn’t break through into a full-time role, although Denver did bump his usage over the second half of the year. The Engram addition could take away some schemed touches, at least until the gap in efficiency between Mims and Engram brings them back to Mims.
