Evan Engram is still a key that can unlock the Giants' offensive firepower (if he stays healthy)
If Saquon Barkley is the Giant offense’s engine, Evan Engram is its rocket boosters — the bonus element that lifts everything to another level when they fire properly.
Engram at his best and healthiest is a matchup nightmare for defenses and a threat to score whenever he catches the ball in space.
His blistering 75-yard catch-and-run for a touchdown in Week 3 at Tampa Bay last fall, on the first play from scrimmage of the second half, jump-started an 18-point comeback for the Giants’ first win in Daniel Jones’ debut start.
Engram completely dusted the Buccaneers’ secondary coming through the middle and up the left sideline, with the help of an accurate throw from Jones and an excellent block by receiver Darius Slayton. The Giants were off and running.
This is Engram at his best, in his own words on a Zoom call Monday: “Using my speed, being physical, being a durable player, being available,” he said.
Ah, but being durable and available and physical in the run game: there lie the challenges.
Engram, 25, has been more of a bonus to the offense than a key cog because of his struggles staying healthy.
The 2016 first-round pick of ex-GM Jerry Reese led the Giants with 64 catches for 722 yards and six TDs as a rookie under Ben McAddo. But he missed five games in 2018 and then played in only eight last season for Pat Shurmur, requiring surgery on his left foot in December and rehabbing all offseason.
The Giants picked up his fifth-year option for the 2021 season this spring at around $6 million, but Engram enters 2020 with high stakes for both him and his offense.
If he can stay healthy, he can force safeties, linebackers and corners into awkward mismatches or impossible matchups with what amounts to a 6-foot-3, 240-pound track sprinter in pads.
But if Engram can’t stay on the field, new offensive coordinator Jason Garrett will be missing a significant and dynamic element of the Giants’ attack at its best.
Funny enough, with new head coach Joe Judge’s Patriot-like rules, Engram wouldn’t even divulge Monday if he is fully practicing yet. The media will be able to view Giants practices live for the first time next Monday in East Rutherford, N.J., when the pads come on.
“We’re not allowed to really get into details. That’s a Coach Judge rule,” Engram said. “But I’m out there with my teammates. I’m running around, doing good, and trying to get better every day.”
Engram did say he’s been “working my butt off” this offseason, determined to come back in top shape, even though his rehab schedule was interrupted by the Giants’ shuttering of their facility during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in New Jersey.
“It was an adjustment definitely, just being comfortable up here with our facilities and our trainers, and then everything kind of going south and shutting down,” Engram said. “But our training staff did a good job of making connections where I was at in Atlanta. I got set up at a rehab facility not too far from my house, so I was able to pick back up details I needed and keep things in motion.”
The virtual offseason has every player working at a disadvantage physically compared to a normal season, however, let alone someone like Engram who spent a large part of the early offseason in a boot. So the hope is that this training camp’s extended acclimation period can help everyone get up to speed.
Speed is critical for Engram, too, because while he has worked to improve as a blocker, he became increasingly one-dimensional in Shurmur’s offseason as more of a specialist or extra receiver who sometimes took on tight end duties.
The Giants signed Levine Toilolo in free agency this spring after Rhett Ellison’s retirement (concussions) precisely to fulfill that blocking element at the tight end position, which is now coached by ex-Browns head man Freddie Kitchens.
Engram’s high upside — combined with questions about his durability and fit — led to increasingly loud rumblings last fall that he could be traded. But the Giants eventually todl teams, reportedly, that they weren’t going to deal.
And now, with his fifth-year option picked up, Engram faces a make-or-break year in some respects, as Reese’s lone remaining Giants first-round pick on the roster, to cement his place.
“I’m not really too worried about that right now,” Engram said of putting that kind of pressure on this season. “We have a lot on our plate with the offense and all the different things around training camp. All that stuff will take care of itself. Right now, my focus is I am coming in each and every day finding ways to get better.”
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