Broncos Mailbag: How will Evan Engram produce in Sean Payton’s offense? ...Middle East

Denver Post Broncos writer Parker Gabriel posts his Broncos Mailbag weekly during the season and periodically during the offseason. Click here to submit a question.

As it stands so far, which Denver position groups get you warm and fuzzy, and which ones give you agita?

— Ed Helinski, Auburn, N.Y.

Hey Ed, thanks for writing in and getting us going this week. One more small step toward the season this week as Denver gets on the field for its first set of organized team activities.

That makes it as good a time as any during the offseason to tackle this question.

There’s no reason to feel anything but good about what the Broncos have going at the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball.

They’ve stayed remarkably healthy in both groups over the past two years, but let’s give a slight edge to the defensive line.

For all the talk about the free-agent additions of safety Talanoa Hufanga, inside linebacker Dre Greenlaw and tight end Evan Engram, the Broncos got one of their most critical pieces of offseason business done the day before the free agency negotiating window opened in March. That, of course, was getting D.J. Jones re-signed on a three-year, $39 million deal.

Denver made a couple of substantial changes last year that unleashed the group as a whole. They made Jamar Cain the defensive line coach and added Malcom Roach via free agency and John Franklin-Myers via trade.

This offseason was about retention in getting Jones back and also about future planning by drafting Sai’Vion Jones in the third round of the draft.

They’ve got enviable depth, with Zach Allen as a nearly every-down force, Roach and Jones as high-end run defenders, and Franklin-Myers as one of the most consistent (and probably underrated) pass-rushing big men in football.

Jordan Jackson took a nice step forward last year as the fifth guy in the rotation. Now the Broncos add an athletic, versatile guy in Sai’Vion Jones, who is built like Franklin-Myers. Big, long arms, powerful and with the potential to play a couple of different spots.

That’s before you get to guys like 2022 picks Eyioma Uwazurike and Matt Henningsen and a handful of others on the roster.

What the group looks like beyond this year remains to be seen with Allen, Roach and Franklin-Myers all entering contract years. Allen would seem like a safe bet for an extension, but it’s going to be tough to get all three back. That’s a problem for another day, however. This group’s got talent, balance, depth, chemistry and now a shot of youth.

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Agita, good word. The Broncos have definitely spent the offseason attacking weaknesses and look at this point like they’ve got a balanced, relatively deep roster. It’d be easy to still say running back or tight end, but I’ll buck the trend here a bit and say outside linebacker — with an obvious caveat. They’re good as constructed. But if either Nik Bonitto or Jonathon Cooper misses time with an injury, how big would the drop be? Part of that question is about the fact that you’ve got two really good players at the top of the room. And perhaps Jonah Elliss or Dondrea Tillman would make a big jump if needed.

But if you’re going through the list and ranking where an injury would hurt depth the most, that’d be pretty high up there.

Parker, what can we expect out of Evan Engram in a Sean Payton offense?

— Vince, Westminster

Well, if he stays healthy, it’s hard to imagine him being anything other than the most productive receiving tight end the Broncos have had in more than a decade.

That might sound like hyperbole, but it’s really more a function of the fact that Denver hasn’t had many bountiful tight end seasons in the passing game in recent franchise history.

In fact, the last guy to crest 700 yards for the club was Julius Thomas (788) in 2013.

In Engram’s past two healthy seasons, he’s gone for 963 (2023) and 766 (2022) yards.

Even with a 2024 campaign limited to nine games by injury, Engram’s receiving totals his final two years in Jacksonville are 161 catches (207 targets) for 1,328 yards and five touchdowns.

The Broncos tight end totals under Payton the past two seasons: 90 catches for 817 yards and nine touchdowns.

Payton loves to use the tight end in any number of ways. He’ll try to get Engram free up the sideline and in good matchups to work vertically up the seam, but there are a lot of possibilities underneath, too.

Even with the limited production from the group over the past two years, you’ve seen Adam Trautman sit in the middle of the field against zone coverage or running the little underneath crosser. Add a little juice after the catch in those scenarios and maybe a 6-yard gain turns into 12.

You’d expect Engram to play detached from the formation a lot, basically like a big slot. That allows him to work a lot of different parts of the field.

Obviously, so many of the New Orleans highlights are Jimmy Graham Moss-ing somebody in the back of the end zone. And the Broncos are banking on Engram to be a red zone threat. But a lot of the benefit in having a guy like Engram and a running back who’s a threat in the passing game is the ability to work the first two levels of the defense in the middle of the field.

Here’s part of what Payton said earlier this spring: “We’ve talked about it for two years now. The interior triangle of your passing game is the tight end, the running back and the third receiver. When you’re seeing a lot of these coverage shell looks, those positions have to thrive.”

He added that, just geographically speaking, “The very logistical answer to your question is Engram is closer to Bo than the receivers sometimes. The matchups inside — it’s hard to play that position if you’re not able to attack the interior triangle of some of the looks we’re getting defensively.”

How does Audric Estime fit into the running backs room? RJ Harvey feels like the frontrunner for RB1. And Jaleel McLaughlin has been solid his first two years here. Is Estime the third guy on the depth chart?

— Mark, Arvada

Hey Mark, yeah, good question. That’ll be one of the foremost position battles to watch through the rest of the offseason program and training camp.

Obviously, each guy is going to have to produce in order to secure a role, but the thing Estime has going for him, at least from here, is play style. He’s a big, physical back. Harvey, McLaughlin, Tyler Badie and Blake Watson aren’t all the same kind of back, but Estime’s different physically.

It’s really too early to know, but on paper, you can see a natural pairing between Harvey and Estime and then one of McLaughlin or Badie as the change-of-pace guy.

When Estime was drafted last spring, Payton said the early vision for him was as an early down back and then they’d have to see how the receiving stuff came long. We didn’t see much of that last year, but it’s worth remembering that Estime was one of the youngest players in the NFL and certainly one of the youngest running backs. He’s got a lot of development still ahead of him.

Now, if McLaughlin, Badie or Watson is just more productive day in and day out during training camp, he could get passed up. He doesn’t have a spot just because he’s big and strong.

The Broncos, though, believe in his talent. They obviously liked what they saw from Badie before the Week 4 back injury, too. From here — again, with months before any actual games are played — it looks like McLaughlin’s got a big fight on his hands to stay in the mix as a regular in the game plan. But he’s overcome a lot and has proven people wrong time and again. Not only that, but last year he was their best bet on the goal line and in the red zone despite being the smallest of their backs.

Bottom line: It’s shaping up to be a fun training camp fight to watch.

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