No Joker, Is Evan Engram Still Viable For Fantasy Football?

We remember well the "Joker" moniker that Sean Payton dropped occasionally last summer, usually referencing Evan Engram. We'd seen that position do great things in a Payton-directed offense, which steamed Engram up draft boards last summer. A TE36 finish and 6.0 fantasy points per game later, and the joke was on the fantasy managers who held Engram most, if not all, the season. Could this be the year that Engram gets worked more into the offense? Ian Hartitz breaks it down as part of his Denver Broncos Team Preview.

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Is Evan Engram a post-hype sleeper candidate?

• TE1: Evan Engram (TE32 in Fantasy Life ranks)
• TE2: Adam Trautman
• TE3: Justin Joly

Evan Engram is seemingly back to resume his role as TE1 despite being a popular cut candidate throughout the offseason. Maybe they eventually feel good enough about their younger options to part ways with the 32-year-old veteran, but for now Engram participated in OTAs and is seemingly in line to (again) be the team's top option at the position. Note that the Broncos would inherit more dead money ($7.6 million) than cap savings ($6.5 million) by releasing Engram (per Over The Cap).

On the one hand, Engram caught 50 passes on 76 targets (15th most among tight ends) last season. It's probably a safe bet that he'll score more than one touchdown with a similar workload. On the other hand, he never played even 60% of the offense's snaps in a game all season. Broncos tight ends as a whole rank dead last in targets since Sean Payton took over in 2023. The addition of Justin Joly adds a bigger backup receiving threat than what was on the roster last season.

While fantasy managers have been chasing the ghost of Jimmy Graham for a good decade at this point, we simply haven't seen another Sean Payton tight end come close to that sort of ceiling. Seriously: Ben Watson (TE8) and Jared Cook (TE9) are the only other tight ends who have managed to post top-12 numbers at the position during Payton's 18 seasons as a head ball coach (you can check out the full list right here).

Too much of an optimistic picture here for Engram. I've generally saved my final two-round best ball darts for Greg Dulcich and Terrance Ferguson. If you need another stacking partner for Nix, go for it, but it's tough to paint too much of an optimistic picture here.