Recent rankings magnify Evan Engram's poor 2025 season with Broncos
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Recent rankings magnify Evan Engram's poor 2025 season with Broncos originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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The Denver Broncos looked like they might have made the biggest signing of the 2025 offseason when they got Evan Engram to agree to a free-agent contract with them for two years. But to say he had a poor season in his first year with the team would be putting it mildly.
Engram caught 50 passes for 461 yards and one touchdown last season, but if you watched every game, it didn't even feel like he did that much. Still, the Broncos have him positioned as the No. 1 tight end on the depth chart heading into 2026.
Recently, ESPN asked a group of NFL executives, coaches and scouts to rank the best players at each position in the league and when it came to the tight end position, Engram wasn't on their radar.
The top 10 is filled with young players such as Brock Bowers, Trey McBride, Tyler Warren and Colston Loveland. Travis Kelce still sneaks into the top 10 as well.
Up next were players who were honorable mentions. Engram's name was missing from that list, but surely he'll be mixed in with those who "also received votes", right? Wrong. Engram, a player who caught 114 passes for the Jaguars the season before he signed with the Broncos, didn't even receive a vote from one person.
Remember when the Broncos had to win a bidding war with the Los Angeles Chargers just to get Engram? The fact that the Broncos signed him was great, but beating out a division rival to do it made it extra sweet. But after his performance last year, Engram is being viewed as an aging shell of his former self.
It will be up to the Broncos to help him shed that label in 2026. Justin Joly and Dallen Bentley were added in the draft, but Engram is still easily TE1 on this team. But how long will that remain the case? The team is going to need him to be much more involved in the passing game than he was last year, so getting him going early and often in games could be a key for the offense in 2026.
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Engram had eight games last season where he caught two passes or fewer. But in 2023, his 114 receptions were the second-most ever in a season for a tight end at the time. He is capable of being much closer to that player than the one he was last season. The Broncos just need to figure out whether he can be that guy in this offense, or if it just won't ever be a good fit.
It might be too late in his career for him to be a top 10 tight end at this point, but if he's going to be a guy who doesn't get a singular vote on a rankings list like this one, he'll be in the last year of his contract with the team.
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