'He loves to compete': Evan Engram's road to Broncos' 'Joker' role tested his resilience

Evan Engram was minutes into one of the biggest football tests of his life when his stomach began doing flips under the unforgiving Mississippi sun.

It was 2012 and Engram was entering his senior year at Hillgrove High School in Powder Springs, Ga.

Despite playing a key role on a team that included future NFL Draft picks Kenyan Drake and Bradley Chubb, Engram hadnt been feeling the same recruiting love from major schools.

He had big hands that caught everything thrown his way.

But he was also a tight end who weighed only a shade over 200 pounds and had already missed a season with a broken collarbone.

He played in an offense dominated by Drake, the running back who ended up at Alabama.

Advertisement College evaluators were struggling to conjure a next-level vision.

It was pulling teeth trying to get anyone to take him, Phillip Ironside, Engrams coach at Hillgrove, said in a recent phone interview.

...

I remember Mike Bobo came in.

He recruited us at the time, (as the offensive coordinator) from Georgia.

He said, Coach, who is your next guy? Who is your next Kenyan Drake? I pointed to Evan and said, No.

1, right there.

Hes a baller.

He can play.

He was like, Yeah, we know about him.

We dont know what he is.

What is he, Coach? I said, Hes just a player.

The dude can play.' Engrams best chance to change minds was a summer recruiting camp at Ole Miss.

To show his talent was enough to allay concerns about the right positional fit.

Only his insides werent cooperating.

I guess it was bad pizza he ate or something like that, said Maurice Harris, the Mississippi tight ends coach at the time.

He would take like three or four reps, go throw up, come back and just compete.

When Engram wasnt emptying the contents of his stomach, he was dominating.

Harris marveled at the toughness.

Engram entered the camp at about 210 pounds and had no doubt lost a few that morning, but he did things on the field that were impossible to ignore.

It was just that mindset that he had, that he was going to outwork everybody on that field, Harris said.

That really stood out to us.

Engram received an offer from Ole Miss the next day and committed shortly after that.

He became an All-American selected in the first round of the 2017 NFL Draft by the New York Giants.

In 2023, he became just the eighth tight end in NFL history to catch at least 100 passes in a season when he nabbed 114 receptions with the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Now, the Denver Broncos, who signed the tight end to a two-year, $23 million contract earlier this month, are betting he will be the missing piece for an offense they believe is on the verge of a breakthrough behind young quarterback Bo Nix.

Advertisement Those who have been a part of Engrams story believe there are still vibrant chapters ahead.

He always seems to overachieve, Ironside said.

Everybody doubts him and doubts him, and then he goes on to do more than they expect.

The coaching staff at Ole Miss wasnt necessarily expecting much from Engram when he first arrived on campus ahead of the 2013 season.

They had signed two other tight ends as part of the nations top recruiting class that year and planned to redshirt Engram so that he could develop physically.

But he just outplayed those guys, man, Harris said.

Engram made a good impression as a receiver during his freshman season, catching 21 passes for 268 yards and three touchdowns.

He steadily became a bigger part of the offense the next three seasons, culminating with an All-American campaign in 2016, but what stood out most to Harris was the way Engram embraced an opportunity to crash down on defensive ends like LSUs Arden Key and Texas A&Ms Myles Garrett.

No one was mistaking Engram for an in-line bruiser, but as he grew and showed an increased willingness to be physical, head coach Hugh Freeze and the Ole Miss staff realized they could begin using Engram more creatively.

It was a blueprint for how Engram became one of the NFLs most productive tight ends.

His 496 receptions since 2017 are more than all but three other tight ends in the NFL Travis Kelce (780), George Kittle (538) and Zach Ertz (528).

Evan is just physical enough to where you dont feel comfortable with going just straight man because hes going to be inside sometimes, said Harris, who maintains regular contact with Engram, including during bi-weekly Bible study gatherings the coach organizes over Zoom.

If you do go man and you try to match him up with a linebacker, hes so fast and so agile that he creates mismatches in the box because of skillset.

Now, if you try to match his skillset and bring in another DB, you put that guy in the box and now youve got a guy thats playing DB whos not playing a possible linebacker position and has to account for the run game.

Those games, going back and forth with people, it really lends itself to success offensively because of his skill set.

Advertisement At Hillgrove, Ironside found different ways to utilize that versatility.

Late in a game during Engrams senior season, Hillgrove was trying to protect a lead against a team that had a quarterback who was flinging it all over the place.

Chubb, who would become the No.

5 pick by the Broncos in the 2018 NFL Draft, had suffered a torn ACL earlier that season, so Hillgrove was short on defensive linemen who could apply quick pressure on the quarterback.

Their quarterback is running all over the place, so I look at our D-line coach and said, Put Evan in and let him chase the quarterback,' Ironside said.

I think a kid who can run can cause problems.

And Im telling you, he had two or three sacks, just boom, boom, boom.

We looked at each other like, He could have probably been a pretty unbelievable defensive end.' The Broncos are all set at defensive end.

Engram knows what his job will be in Denver.

Shortly after his signing with the Broncos became official last week, he posted on social media a GIF of Heath Ledgers Joker character from the film The Dark Night, a reference to the position Broncos coach Sean Payton has coveted for his offense.

pic.twitter.com/jwfGNPYZ9i Evan Engram (@eazyengram) March 13, 2025 My wife was just asking me what its going to be like for him there.

I said, I know hes got to be thrilled,' Ironside said.

Hes got a potentially great quarterback.

Hes got an offensive genius (as coach).

Jacksonvilles had turmoil.

They just have.

I dont think Trevor Lawerence has been healthy.

Theyve gone through play-callers and coaches and disarray, and then Evan was hurt (for eight games in (2024).

Its just a breath of fresh air.

Hes going to work, and he loves to compete.

(Top photo: Mike Carlson / Getty Images).

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