NY Giants’ TE Evan Engram’s Pro Bowl selection was met with skepticism, and rightly so.
If the Pro Bowl is the measure of success of the selected player’s season, then by most metrics NY Giants tight end Evan Engram should not have been picked.
To be fair, I personally do not believe in the Engram hype. And though there are plenty who feel like Engram was a bust of a pick from a regime that was ultimately fired, there are plenty of people who are paid to evaluate NFL talent that believe in him.
An AFC scout told FanSided’s Matt Lombardo earlier this year, just before the trade deadline, that Gettleman’s top priority should be moving Engram.
“If I were the Giants, trying to trade Evan Engram would be my top priority. I’d try to find a team that actually knows how to use him, and accumulate as many picks as I can over the next week.”
But the Giants seemed to rather hang onto Engram’s potential than move him for other assets.
Perhaps the Giants were right to; even during a down year on a bad offense, he was viewed as one of the four best representations of what a tight end is in today’s NFL.
So to make sense of his pick, if just for myself, let’s review some of the metrics that show why Engram was selected as a Pro Bowl tight end.
The Giants Putrid Passing Game
While it’s not a prerequisite for a player to be on a good team in order to make the Pro Bowl, it’s hard to fathom how anyone on the Giants offense, especially those involved in the passing game, should get the honor.
The Giants are the 31st ranked offense, ahead of only the lowly one-win NY Jets in total yards and yards per game, and points and points per game. They have accumulated 4,189 yards, and average 299.9 per game. They’ve scored just 244 points, and average only 17.4 per game.
Their passing game is equally poor. They’re 29th in the league for total passing yards — 2,600 — and passing yards per game — 1,589.
Engram leads the Giants in multiple receiving metrics. He’s first on the team in targets (95) and receptions (54). He has only one touchdown, 572 receiving yards, and averages 41 yards per game.
Even if Engram scores a touchdown in each of the next two games, he’ll only tie his previous two season totals. His three touchdowns in 2018 came in 11 games played, while his three in 2019 came in just eight games played.
It is not as though this year is a stand-out year for Engram. Though he is slightly up in yards and receptions from last year, in which he missed half a season, he is down in most metrics across the board.
His yards per reception matches last year’s total of 10.6. If it remains, it will be back-to-back years of career lows. His receptions per game of 3.9 is the lowest of his career. So is his yards per game. His six yards per target are also the lowest of his career.
Engram has been targeted 95 times, closing in on his rookie season numbers, when it appeared that the sky was the limit for the tight end out of Mississippi. But despite being targeted nearly 100 times, he only has a catch percentage of 56.8%. If that percentage stays below 64 after the next two games, this will mark the third consecutive year Engram’s catch percentage has dropped.
Engram has scored a rushing touchdown this season, the first in his young career. But he only has 21 yards rushing, giving him 593 scrimmage yards this season. His career high in scrimmage yards is 736.
Drops continue to be the biggest problem with Engram, as any NY Giants fan could tell you and as anyone watching Sunday Night Football recently witnessed. Engram has nine drops this year, triple the amount of last year. He has a 9.5 drop percentage for all passes thrown his way. And perhaps worst of all, Giants QBs have thrown five interceptions when targeting Engram.
The passer rating when targeting Engram is abysmal, just 56.1%. Pro Football Reference’s numbers only go back to 2018 in this category for Engram, but let those numbers paint a picture: that number was 113.9% in 2018, and then down to 99.3% in 2019.
So, Engram is the best receiver on one of the worst passing offenses in the NFL. He’s played more games than he has in the past two seasons, and he’s up big in targets, and up slightly in receptions and yards. But none of the improvements have helped improve the Giants’ passing game.
Perhaps his level of play is at or near those of the other TEs selected.
The Pro Bowl TEs
It would of been criminal had Evan Engram been named a starting TE in the Pro Bowl.
When you compare Engram to his AFC counterparts, it appears as though they play different positions.
Kansas City’s Travis Kelce has 98 receptions, almost twice as many as Engram. He also has amassed over 1,300 yards, far more than twice as many as Engram. He has 10 touchdowns (Engram has one), 72 first downs (Engram, 28), averages 94.1 yards per game (Engram, 41), and a catch percentage of 74.2% (Engram, 56.8).
Kielce does have two drops this season, which resulted in two interceptions. Still, the passer rating when he’s targeted is 124.5%.
Kelce is the top-shelf tight end of choice, and his numbers stand far above all others in his position. But not far behind is Las Vegas’ Darren Waller.
Waller is the only other Pro Bowl TE with over 90 receptions. He has 93, with 967 yards and eight touchdowns. He’s averaging 69.1 yards per game, and has a catch percentage of 72.1. Waller, like Kelce, has more than 500 yards after catch. And he’s hard to bring down; he has 7 broken tackles.
Waller’s four drops have resulted in two interceptions, but the passer rating when he’s targeted is 107.6%.
Engram does seem to fit in better with the bottom-shelf tight ends of the NFC. While most of his numbers remain behind Detroit’s T.J. Hockenson, many are within striking distance.
Engram leads Hockenson in targets (95 vs. 92). And it should also be worth mentioning that Engram has the longest reception of the bunch, with a 53-yard play. But Hockenson was named the NFC starter for a reason.
He has 60 receptions for 675 yards. He has six touchdowns, 38 first downs, 48.2 yards per game, and a catch percentage of 65.2%.
Hockenson is not too far in front of Engram in the “bad” metrics. He has a 7.6 drop percentage to go with his seven drops, four of which resulted in interceptions. The 90.6% passer rating when Hockenson is targeted, though, is nearly double that of when Engram is targeted.
So, Engram leads his NFC counterpart in targets and has the longest play of the bunch. But outside of that, he is dead-last in most categories, and far, far behind the leader in many of the most important.
But maybe that’s because the NFC is just behind the curve when it comes to the modern day tight end.
The TEs of the NFC
Right away, it’s not hard to tell that the AFC is where the good TEs play.
Four of the top five tight ends in receiving yards come from the AFC. But four NFC tight ends break into the top ten: T.J. Hockenson is currently third, Evan Engram is currently seventh, Logan Thomas is currently eighth, and Robert Tonyan is currently 10th.
Engram only leads Thomas by two yards. And since we’ve already compared Engram to Hockenson, we’ll now look at how Engram compares to the next three NFC tight ends: Thomas, Robert Tonyan, and Dalton Schultz, who’s currently 12th in receiving yards.
Engram’s numbers certainly fit it with his NFC counterparts, but you still have to scratch you head at why he was selected over the others.
Engram leads Thomas, Tonyan, and Schultz in targets, longest play, reception yards, yards per game and yards after catch. But he is again the lead when looking at the “bad” metrics: Engram has the most drops, the highest drop percentage, caused the most interceptions, and has by far the lowest passer rating when he’s targeted.
Washington’s Logan Thomas is only two reception yards behind Engram. He has more receptions on fewer targets, and currently has five touchdowns. He has a catch percentage of 68.1 (Engram, 56.8), which is second lowest compared to this group.
Thomas has four drops, for a drop percentage of 4.4, which resulted in two interceptions. His passer rating when targeted is second lowest in the group, but at 94.1, it’s almost double that of Engram’s 56.1.
If the Pro Bowl was looking for tight ends who can actually score, Thomas would be more appealing than Engram, but still not as appealing as Tonyan.
Green Bay’s Robert Tonyan is tied with Travis Kelce for most touchdowns among tight ends with 10. That’s on 49 receptions and 551 yards. He averages 39.4 yards per game, and his catch is the best of this foursome at 89.1%.
Perhaps most important, he has zero drops. The passer rating when Tonyan is targeted is 148%.
Dallas’ Dalton Schultz is also in striking distance with Engram in most categories. With 53 receptions, he has just one below Engram. Engram leads Schultz in yards per reception as well, 10.6 to 9.8. His 241 yards after catch are just two behind Engram. And his average yards per game is 3.5 yards below Engram’s 40.9.
And while his biggest deficit is in reception yards (572 vs. 524), his four touchdowns are more than Engram’s one. Further, Schultz has a catch percentage of 70.7.
Plus, Schultz is far less likely to drop the ball than Engram; he has three drops, one of which was responsible for an interception. The passer rating while Schultz is targeted is 102.3%.
It’s hard to imagine that the two-yard advantage in reception yards is what solidifies Evan Engram’s status as a Pro Bowler, especially since he is far more likely to drop the ball or cause more interceptions than anyone discuss in this post.
So was he picked for his big-play ability? His 53-yard play is the only thing that he holds over the other tight ends. But the players won’t even play in this year’s Pro Bowl.
It seems wrong that Engram was selected over more reliable receivers. But his selection highlights just how far behind the NFC is in its use of the modern day tight end.