Last season, I knew Christian Kirk was going to be the number one target in the Jags offense. Calvin Ridley was going to get a fair share of targets after the shocking trade the year prior from Atlanta, and Travis Etienne out of the backfield is always a receiving threat. Were there going to be enough targets left over for Evan Engram? 1,000% yes.
Evan Engram ended 2023 with 143 targets, an absolute volume insanity season. Even when you take a look at the offense heading into Week 13, which was the week that Christian Kirk got hurt, Evan Engram and Christian Kirk were tied for 79 targets at that time. So, could Christian Kirk still be the wide receiver one this year and the number one target? Absolutely. But then you take a look at the rest of the guys on the team, and there are no guarantees that any of them could outperform Evan Engram in targets.
Travis Etienne, Doug Peterson has talked about limiting his role. Gabe Davis, big playmaker on the outside, but he's not going to get nearly as many targets as Calvin Ridley did. They added Brian Thomas, a good wide receiver, but do we really trust that the rookie wide receiver is going to top Evan Engram in terms of targets this season? There's plenty of vacated targets from last year: 136 targets left over from the departure of Calvin Ridley and 64 targets left over from the departure of Zay Jones. There's more than enough targets to go around this season.
Even though Evan Engram didn't score as many touchdowns as we would like last year, really limiting his ceiling, even if that happens again in 2024, Evan Engram may be one of the safest tight ends that you could invest in. Are you going to win a ton of weeks because of him? Probably not. Is he a good best ball draft pick? Absolutely not. But in redraft leagues, he absolutely could be one of those set-it-and-forget-it guys where he doesn't lose you any weeks, and as long as he's in your lineup, you know that you're going to be getting the targets.
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