Big Cat Country
Engram joins Trevor Lawrence, Christian Kirk and Gabe Davis on injured reserve.
“Unfortunately, we’re gonna lose Evan for the year,” Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson told reporters Friday. “He’ll have a labrum to get fixed, so he’ll have surgery, fix the shoulder, and miss the rest of the year.”
It’s a disappointing end to a disappointing season for Engram. His 5.7 yards per target and 40.6 yards per game were the lowest marks of his three-year Jaguars career. He has 1 touchdown catch on 64 targets this year — Jake Ferguson is the only NFL player with fewer scores on as many opportunities. Engram said before the season that he wanted to be utilized more downfield, yet his 5.4 average depth of target ranks 30th out of 41 qualifying tight ends (min. 25 targets).
In Engram’s defense, his relatively poor 2024 campaign wasn’t his fault. Jacksonville’s offense caught nobody by surprise to start the season, and once Trevor Lawrence went down, single-digit points scored became the norm.
This was the first season in Engram’s eight-year career that he failed to reach 400 yards receiving. However, he did make NFL history by becoming the third tight end to ever catch 40-plus passes in each of his first eight seasons (joining Jeremy Shockey and George Kittle).
Engram now joins Lawrence, Christian Kirk, and Gabe Davis on injured reserve.
The next man up is 2023 second-round pick Brenton Strange, who has 28 career catches for 291 yards and 3 touchdowns.
“We’ve been pleased with Brenton—excited about Brenton, really,” Pederson said. “He’s done a nice job for us, and this will be a great opportunity for him to really showcase himself a little bit within our offense. Another opportunity for Luke [Farrell] as well to get more of an opportunity in these last four games, and Josiah [Deguara] too. This will be good for him. Really expect him to continue playing at a high level.”
Engram said Monday: “Obviously, I would love to get the football and make plays to put my team in a great position. But I’ve definitely found myself in a lot of situations to help out some of these young guys, pour into them, share some of my wisdom with them, give them some of the expedited experience to help them come along. At the end of the day, I just want to make our team better.”
Engram’s superb leadership was on display when Lawrence was injured. Get well soon, 17.
