Eight years in, every aspect of Evan Engram‘s life is calibrated for this.
The Broncos tight end is the first one fans see on the grass every day at training camp. He loves the fans, but he does it for himself.
Fifteen or so minutes before any other Bronco jogs out from the locker room, the tight end goes through his routine — the stretch before the stretch. Engram bends deep. He hops for a few yards. He drives his hand into the ground in a blocking stance and smacks a dummy pad.
In September, longtime trainer Drew Lieberman will move with his wife to Denver to a house just down the street from Engram, another step in a precise routine. It’s an arrangement they’ve had since Engram entered his second year in Jacksonville back in 2023. Lieberman runs a training business called Sideline Hustle, and was trying to determine which of his clients — a group that’s included NFL receivers Mohamed Sanu and Olamide Zaccheaus — demanded the most attention.
Engram craved it. The first season Lieberman rented a property near him in Jacksonville, Engram caught a career-best 114 passes. Now Lieberman spends half his years living essentially with Engram, the two breaking down tape and the tight end’s psyche.
“He’s becoming the sensei,” Lieberman said, “of this whole (thing).”
When they first began working together before his last year with the Giants in 2021, Engram told Lieberman his primary career goal was to win a Super Bowl MVP. Lieberman’s response was simple: That’s BS*.*
“How is that the judgment of your career?” Lieberman recalled saying. “Pick better goals.”
It was an arbitrary trophy, based on factors largely out of Engram’s control. So later on in their relationship, as they spent time discussing books like sports psychologist Bob Rotella’s “How Champions Think,” Engram came back with a new proclamation.
“He’s like, ‘When I really think about it, I know if I really get everything out of my talent, I can be one of the best tight ends that ever lived,’ ” Lieberman said.
That one was better.
A few years and a rebirth in Jacksonville later, the 30-year-old is still far away in that chase. He is, however, one of the best tight ends currently playing in the NFL.
He signed with Denver this offseason to embed himself in an offense that won’t put guardrails on his 6-foot-3, 240-pound frame.
Denver Broncos tight end Evan Engram (1) during training camp at Broncos Park Powered by CommonSpirit in Centennial on Saturday, July 26, 2025. (Photo by Andy Cross/The Denver Post)
Denver Broncos tight end Evan Engram (1) during training camp at Broncos Park Powered by CommonSpirit in Centennial on Saturday, July 26, 2025. (Photo by Andy Cross/The Denver Post)
“I think the important thing for players like this,” former Giants tight ends coach Derek Dooley said, “is to get within systems that have flexibility to do different things outside of the traditional NFL way, so to speak.”
There is no traditional NFL position for the moniker that’s been bestowed on Engram in Denver: “Joker.”
Head coach Sean Payton coined the term over the years. It applies to unconventionally gifted receivers who thrive underneath in his offenses. It doesn’t exactly pop up in meeting rooms. Fans and reporters, Engram smiled, “have a lot more fun with it” than actual coaches.
The “AI” definition, as Payton put it, is a tight end or running back who’s a rare pass-catcher. This concept has long existed in the NFL, of course, outside of Payton’s “Joker” favorites like tight end Jimmy Graham or running back Darren Sproles in New Orleans. A player like Engram, as NFL vet Sanu explained, forces defenses to choose whether to play in base or in nickel (extra defensive back) to account for his ability to burn a linebacker in coverage.
“When the defense puts an umbrella on the deep ball or they’re clouding to the outside — they force you to work inside sometimes,” offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi said in camp. “And having guys that have the talent to get open underneath, but also the feel — a lot of those routes are feel routes. A lot of them have options to them.
“So having guys that have the ability to do it and then the feel and the instincts to do the right things, it’s huge.”
It’s easy to take away a wide receiver in the pass game in the NFL, Payton explained. It’s less easy to take away a halfback or tight end. With Engram’s arrival, the Broncos now have multiple pieces — receiver Marvin Mims Jr. and running back RJ Harvey are others — who can move across formations and veer in and out of the flat on choice routes.
Engram has been particularly focused on developing as a blocker since arriving in Denver — a role he’s filled on roughly a third of the snaps in his eight-year NFL career. That, too, forces opposing coordinators to adjust. If Engram can stay on the field as a run-blocker, defenses can’t just game-plan against the pass and always shadow him with an extra defensive back.
“He sticks his nose in there,” Lombardi said. “Complete tight end, and a guy who’s been really showing up here in camp.”
The “Joker” label is fun. It means little to Engram, though, until he earns it.
Evan Engram (1) of the Denver Broncos catches a pass during OTAs at Broncos Park in Centennial on Thursday, June 5, 2025. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)
Evan Engram (1) of the Denver Broncos catches a pass during OTAs at Broncos Park in Centennial on Thursday, June 5, 2025. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)
“I just see that as being reliable, being clutch, making plays … run-game, it’s pass-game, in the locker room, in the weight room, just doing my job at the highest level,” Engram said. “With doing that, and the work, the results will come.
“And then, the fun — we can have more fun with it as we go.”
Broncos TEs vs. Evan Engram
The Broncos tight ends were far from productive during Sean Payton’s first two seasons as head coach in Denver. The addition of Evan Engram through free agency should change that this fall. Mobile users, tap here to see the chart.
Year Name Games Catches Yards TDs
2024 Evan Engram (Jacksonville) 9 47 365 1
2024 Broncos tight ends 17 51 483 5
2023 Evan Engram (Jacksonville) 17 114 963 4
2023 Broncos tight ends 17 39 362 4
Source: Pro-Football-reference.com.
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