Coming into Sunday Night Football, Evan Engram this season has been playing a career-low percentage of snaps offensively than what he’s seen throughout his career, but in primetime against the Washington Commanders, we finally saw a concerted effort to use him.
This will be key for the Denver Broncos as they continue to ascend after winning nine straight games, and Engram’s role will be important for them down the stretch. Coming into Sunday’s matchup, he was playing 45% of the team’s offensive snaps. Against the Commanders, he played 54% of the snaps.
Early on in Sunday’s game, Engram and Bo Nix weren’t on the same page on their first two attempts, and that has kind of been the story at times this season. Instead of going away from the connection, both Nix and Engram kept grinding and kept connecting throughout the course of the game, including in overtime, where the Broncos ‘Joker’ shook veteran linebacker Bobby Wagner for a 41-yard catch and run that eventually set up RJ Harvey’s second rushing touchdown of the night.
“It feels great,” Engram said. “It feels great just to make a big play like that for the team. Yeah, that feels good.”
He finished Sunday Night with six catches on nine targets for 79 yards.
Going forward, the Nix and Engram connection needs to continue to thrive and keep developing because, as the season winds down and the playoff push begins, being able to isolate Engram against inside linebackers in one-on-one situations could be another evolution for this offense, further transforming it.
Engram’s skillset and talent are too valuable for him to be playing a career-low snap percentage on offense, and hopefully that percentage increases after Sunday’s game.