Jacksonville Jaguars TE Evan Engram sees verticality as the next step in his evolution

Jacksonville Jaguars tight end Evan Engram flashed a smile and said had chills when he heard the question.

The veteran tight end spoke to media after the third day of training camp and was asked how it feels for him knowing how locked in the team is going into his third season in Jacksonville.

“I’m blessed to be going into year eight [in the NFL], year three [in Jacksonville]. Have the best two years of my career here and to be one of the leaders,” he said. “A guy to look to for leadership, accountability, setting an example. I don’t take it for granted.”

Engram found sanctity in Jacksonville after beginning his career with the New York Giants and signing a one-year “prove-it” deal with the Jaguars in 2022.

Engram made the most of the deal, recording career numbers in yards (766) and catches (73) in his first season in Doug Pederson’s offense. That led him to signing a three-year, $41.25 million contract last season to keep him with the franchise until 2025.

Jacksonville Jaguars training camp: QB Trevor Lawrence returns to form, avoids turnovers

He upped those career numbers in 2023, becoming a safety blanket for Trevor Lawrence while recording highs in yards (963), targets (143) and yards (114) and earning his second career Pro Bowl nod for his efforts.

And still, he feels like there’s untapped potential in his game as training camp begins.

“I’ve been really having a lot of success underneath in the past couple of years, and there’s still room for improvement there. I’m in continuous search for that,” he said. “I hope this year there’s some more opportunities down field [to] get vertical. The way our offense is being built through camp, that’s going to be a lot of great opportunity. I have to go earn that.”

Engram's 114 catches were the most among tight ends and fourth most among pass catchers last season. But his 963 receiving yards landed him at No. 30 among all pass catchers.

It’s because most of his receptions were near the line of scrimmage or on horizontal routes as Trevor Lawrence checked the ball down to him.

His versatility and physical route running allows the Jaguars to create mismatches with defenders. But he thinks he has the skillset to push downfield and give Jacksonville another option on deeper routes.

“I definitely would love to get more opportunities that way but I gotta show that I can do it,” Engram said. “I gotta prove that I can do it in practice and get on the same page with Trevor [Lawrence], there’s some things that we have to work on there. I have to go earn that.”

Press Taylor thinks continued versatility will help Engram, offense

Press Taylor spoke with media on Thursday morning and expounded on what growth looks like for Engram going into the new season.

“I think just continuing to grow in the system and being able to do all sorts of things. We get up there in the install meetings and we say, ‘This is our formation, we're running this play out there tomorrow, but we need you guys to understand this is a three-man concept,’” Taylor explained. “The more you could play one, two and three, the more versatile you are, the more valuable you are for our offense as we go.”

Engram has a leg up on some of the other pass catchers since he’s going into his third season in the system. For him and Christian Kirk, the language used by coaches and expectations are second nature.

But newcomers will have a big role in the new-look offense as Gabe Davis and Brian Thomas Jr. are implemented into Pederson’s system. And it may open up things for Engram.

“Gabe was here for rookie minicamp and he sent me some clips of him running some slot routes. He was joking around that he was going to take some of my inside routes, my underneath routes,” Engram said. “I was like, ‘Shoot, I’ll take the yards-per-catch that you came in with.’”

Taylor assesses second-year players early in training camp

Aside from first-rounder Anton Harrison, the offensive draft picks from the 2023 rookie class had a forgettable season last year. But the early indication through the offseason workouts and first few days of training camp is an improved look from most of the players.

Parker Washington , Brenton Strange and Tank Bigsby have all looked a lot more settled as they enter the second camp with the Jaguars.

Taylor shed some light on why he thinks they’ve improved and it doesn’t necessarily have a lot to do with the football field.

“A lot of these guys live in small college towns, all of a sudden they move to Jacksonville, they're in this hotel, they're getting around here and there, they're meeting people they've never seen before,” he said. “There's a lot more people in the building during training camp as well. I think you just kind of let them settle in and they start to bring out who they are."

The first few months of a rookie NFL player’s life is a whirlwind. The college season ends in early December and for the next five months it’s training and preparing for the pre-draft process.

Once drafted, they have minicamps and offseason workouts while trying to learn playbooks, teammates, coaches and staff members. They are likely living out of hotels or temporary living situations because they haven’t had the time to find a full-time place to live.

Then they get an abbreviated break before going into training camp and the season. And in truth, it’s probably an overwhelming experience to go through.

But once they’ve settled a bit, they can have open dialogue and a better understanding of what coaches are looking for. In turn, it translates to better play on the field.

“There's just a confidence with those guys of understanding what's being asked of them every single day, what meetings look like, what individual periods look like, what each scheme looks like as we go,” Taylor said.

Juston Lewis is a Jacksonville Jaguars beat reporter for the Florida Times-Union. You can follow him on the website formerly known as Twitter at @JustonLewis_ .

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville Jaguars TE Evan Engram sees verticality as the next step in his evolution