Evan Engram: Talks with Jaguars have been ‘very promising’

The Jacksonville Jaguars don’t want to lose Evan Engram, and he doesn’t want to hit the open market. The good will between the two parties has led to some encouraging talks so far, according to the veteran tight end.

“The conversations we had are very promising,” Engram said Monday during an appearance on Sirius XM NFL Radio. “Hopefully something gets done, and I think it’s mutual. We haven’t had too many conversations yet, but the interest is there on both sides for me to come back, and obviously I’d like to come back as well.

“I definitely felt like I put a lot of great things on film. I had a lot of great results this year, and I was a big part of helping my team win.”

Engram, 28, joined the Jaguars last offseason on a one-year, $9 million contract and thrived in Jacksonville. He broke the team’s single-season franchise records for receptions (73) and receiving yards (766) by a tight end, and added another 12 receptions for 124 yards in the playoffs.

Immediately after the Jaguars lost in the Divisional Round to the Kansas City Chiefs, an emotional Engram told reporters in the locker room that his season with the team was the best year of his life.

One significant reason it’d benefit the Jaguars to bring Engram back is the rapport he developed with quarterback Trevor Lawrence in 2022. After the season, the 23-year-old passer told reporters that he intended to speak to team executives about bringing Engram back.

If the Jaguars can’t reach an agreement with Engram in the next couple weeks, the team could use the franchise tag before a March 8 deadline to guarantee that the tight end doesn’t reach free agency. If that happens, Engram told Sirius XM that he’d view the tag as a placeholder to give both sides more time to reach a deal.

Jacksonville has a lot of tough calls to make this offseason as it tries to keep a few key free agents and get under the salary cap. Engram doesn’t appear to be one of those hard decisions, though. There seems to be no doubt that the tight end is sticking around with the Jaguars.