Jaguars TE Evan Engram's jaw-dropping catch shows he's in midseason form

Tight end Evan Engram has been a mainstay of the Jacksonville Jaguars since he signed with them in 2022. He's put together a couple of amazing seasons, and based on a recent catch he made during Organized Team Activities, he should have no trouble adding a third.

Engram was the talk of the town during the second week of OTAs, reeling in a pass from quarterback Mac Jones with one hand. Here's the grab in case you missed it.

Engram has kind of flown under the radar since joining the Jaguars but he's been one of the best tight ends in the league the past two seasons. In that span, he logged a combined 187 receptions for 1,729 yards with eight touchdowns. Granted, Mark Andrews missed time last year and Travis Kelce is still the measurement stick at the position, but Engram's production stacks up favorably against his peers.

One area where Engram has vastly improved is drops. Back in 2017, he dropped an alarming 11 passes. That's the only time in his career where he crossed the double-digit mark but he still struggled during most of his stint with the New York Giants. However, he had a drop percentage of 3.9, a career-low, in his first season in Jacksonville.

It went up to 5.0 last year but in his defense, he was targeted 143 times. As a matter of fact, Engram had the highest catch rate for any player last season who was targeted 100+ times.

Jaguars TE Evan Engram should have a third straight banner year

Evan Engram became Trevor Lawrence's top target in 2023 because receivers Zay Jones and Christian Kirk missed time at different points of the season. But as good as Engram was, he only averaged 8.4 yards per reception. That was due to opposing defenses zeroing on him because the Jags had no other weapons besides Calvin Ridley. And even then, you could argue that Ridley didn't step up when Jacksonville needed him the most.

Kirk is healthy after suffering a core injury to end 2023. He should draw coverage away from Engram in the middle. Add the fact that Gabe Davis and rookie Brian Thomas Jr. will stretch the field and the veteran tight end should have plenty of favorable coverages. On the other hand, having so many targets on offense will most likely prevent him from registering his second 100-yard season in a row.

Then again, Engram probably won't mind seeing some of his targets go to his teammates if that means winning more games in 2024. Last year, he caught the spotlight because he said that teams would need to pick their poison when defending the Jags. That didn't turn out to be the case but it could very well be next season.

The bottom line is that it's easy to forget how stacked the Jacksonville Jaguars offense is. If they make a deep playoff run in 2024, it will be because of players like Evan Engram, who's already in midseason form.

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