Fantasy Friday: How to handle Jaguars tight ends Evan Engram and Brenton Strange

This is the fourth installment of Fantasy Friday, a series of weekly blogs diving into the fantasy football projections and value assessment for all the Jacksonville Jaguars fantasy-relevant players. To see last week’s assessment on the wide receivers, you can read that here.

Now, onto the tight ends:

Jaguars notable additions at tight end for the 2023 season

Brenton Strange

Drafted in the second round, Strange should immediately see significant time on the field with only Evan Engram and, maybe, Luke Farrell ahead in the initial depth chart.

Jaguars Tight End Fantasy Football projections for 2023

Evan Engram

2022 ADP – TE24 | 2022 Finish – TE5 | 2023 ADP – TE8

Engram recorded career-highs in receptions and receiving yards in his first season with the Jags. After struggling in the first seven weeks (averaging 4.2 fantasy points), Engram picked it up in the second half, averaging 13.7 points from weeks 13-16.

Even with Engram signing his new three-year deal, I will not be taking Engram in redraft leagues this year. His week-to-week inconsistency for fantasy does not do enough to justify the TE8 draft position and I would rather hold out for a player like Tyler Higbee at a much later spot.

However, because of his week-winning ability, I would strongly consider Engram in a best-ball format and pair him with a more stable, late-round Tight end such as Tyler Higbee.

Projections: 55 Receptions, 550 Yards, 4 Receiving TDs – TE9

Recommendation: Probably not

Brenton Strange

Rookie | 2023 ADP – Undrafted

While it may be tempting to take a flyer on Strange late in the draft, tight ends almost never make an impact (for fantasy football) in their rookie year. Look no further than 2018 second-round pick Dallas Goedert who, coached by Pederson and backing up Zach Ertz, had 33 catches, 334 yards, and four touchdowns.

This is not indicative of how Strange will perform over the course of his career. Goedert is now a top-15 TE for fantasy, but you would have dropped him after six weeks if you drafted him his rookie year. Rather, this is indicative of the steep learning curve at the tight end position in the NFL.

Projections: 30 Receptions, 280 Yards, 2 Receiving TDs – TE70

Recommendation: Not this year

Do you have any questions on the data or anything else you would like to see in these articles going forward? Post your comment below or feel free to reach out to me on Twitter @DuvalAndrew904. Otherwise, keep an eye out for next Friday’s breakdown of the Defense and Kicker position!

Here are other recent Jaguars stories you might also like: