The Jacksonville Jaguars’ season ended in the Divisional Round as they were defeated 27-20 by the Kansas City Chiefs. Once the game was over, Jacksonville was into the off-season. They want to make signing tight end Evan Engram a priority.
Engram agreed to a 1-year contract with the Jaguars on March 14, 2022. The deal was worth $9 million. Engram has spent the previous 5 years with the New York Giants. In New York, his top year for them was his rookie year, 2017 when he caught 64 passes for 722 yards and 6 touchdowns. The Giants expected Engram to exceed those numbers. It never happened. New York let him go following the 2021 season when Engram caught 46 passes for a career low 408 yards.
Jacksonville needed another pass catcher for quarterback Trevor Lawrence. Engram was one of Lawrence’s favorite targets. In the regular season, Engram totaled career highs in receptions and yards. He caught 73 passes for 766 yards. His average yards per catch was an impressive 10.5. Engram also added 4 touchdowns.
In the Super Wild Card Round against the L.A. Chargers, Engram caught 7 passes for 93 yards. The Chargers had a difficult time covering him. Engram was able to be open for Lawrence. That helped the Jaguars win the game 31-30. In the Divisional Round loss to Kansas City, the Chief’s defense took Engram away. He totaled 5 receptions for 31 yards.
Engram wants to stay with Jacksonville. The Jaguars want him back. According to CBSsports.com, Jaguars’ General Manager Trent Baalke said, “Obviously, we would love to have Evan back. Evan and I visited yesterday, and he went around the building and visited with everybody. I think it’s mutual. Now we got to make it happen. That’s something that we’re going to work on with Evan, and all the other free agents that we have. We have a list of them that we got to mow down one at a time.”
The Jaguars have two choices if they want to keep Engram. The easiest option is to sign him to a new long term contract. The other is to place the franchise tag on him. Doing that would give Jacksonville time to find common ground on a deal. Either way though, Engram is most likely to stay in Jacksonville. He thrived in the offense and that should help Jacksonville make another run at the postseason next year.
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