While the Jacksonville Jaguars have some major issues to sort out on defense entering the new league year, new head coach Liam Coen likely already has a vision for QB Trevor Lawrence, WR Brian Thomas Jr. and what should be a much-improved Jaguars offense in 2025.
Whether that vision includes tight end Evan Engram is fair to question.
Engram was a productive player for Jacksonville during the Doug Pederson era, but he has a looming $19.5 million cap hit and a lengthy injury history that could make him a prime candidate to be cut or traded this offseason.
Engram, entering his age 31 season, still has some value as a pass-catcher, especially just two years removed from snagging 114 passes from Lawrence during the 2023 season. The Bleacher Report Scouting Department recently proposed an interesting trade package that would ship Engram to the tight end-needy Denver Broncos in exchange for a swap of Day 3 draft picks.
Here was the site’s full hypothetical trade package:
Hypothetical Trade We’d Love to See: 2025 fourth-round pick (No. 121 overall) for TE Evan Engram and 2025 seventh-round pick (No. 223 overall)
Engram’s tenure in Jacksonville seems to be fading, but he’s the exact kind of big slot tight end that would be fun to see in Denver. Engram would offer another big-bodied target for Nix to utilize. Many of Payton’s best offenses in New Orleans featured a versatile tight end like Jimmy Graham. He would get some of that skill set by trading for Engram. Engram finished the season on injured reserve with a torn labrum. As long as he recovers from that he could still be a useful cog in the Broncos offense next season.
Just days away from Super Bowl Sunday, ’tis the season to conjure up NFL trades that are unlikely to happen. Here’s why this particular deal makes a ton of sense for both sides.
Let’s start with Denver, which hasn’t threatened the defense with a pass-catching tight end since Sean Payton took over prior to the 2023 season. The Broncos ditched their failed experiment with former third-round pick Greg Dulcich, and have rolled with veteran Adam Trautman, who was originally drafted by Payton during his time with the New Orleans Saints. Trautman does some of the dirty work an offense needs from its tight end, but catching the football is far from his specialty. He has fewer receptions over the entirety of his five-year NFL career (95) than Engram had during that breakout 2023 season alone.
Adding a true passing game threat at TE for quarterback Bo Nix will be a must for Denver this offseason. If the Broncos are unable to land a game-changing stud in the 2025 NFL Draft, like Penn State’s Tyler Warren or Michigan’s Colston Loveland, a move for a stop-gap veteran like this would make a ton of sense.
On the other side of this trade, you likely wouldn’t have to convince the Jaguars to trade their starting tight end. In fact, it would be easy to see the Jags paying a portion of Engram’s 2025 salary to help facilitate a move like this.
Jacksonville drafted Brenton Strange with a second-round pick in 2023. He got a chance to flash his receiving chops this past season, with Engram on the shelf nursing a nagging hamstring injury. Strange showed chemistry with Lawrence and caught 40 passes on 53 targets. His ability to be an all-around tight end makes him an easy candidate to ascend to TE1 in 2025.
Jacksonville enters April’s draft with a ton of capital — 10 selections overall and three inside the top 70. With major needs both in the defensive secondary and in the trenches on both sides of the football, the new regime will likely be aggressive in moving around the draft board to start reshaping the roster. Improving draft capital for Engram, a player who could otherwise be straight-out released, feels like a home-run situation.
Folks will toss out some ridiculous trade predictions in the coming weeks, but Engram to the Broncos is one we’re 100 percent on board with.
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