One of the primary reasons the New York Giants’ offense struggled in 2019 was due to injuries. Specifically, in the tight end corps, where Evan Engram suffered a foot injury against the New England Patriots, which required surgery, and Rhett Ellison succumbed to a concussion — the Giants had to rely on rookie Kaden Smith much more than anticipated.
Ellison elected to retire this off-season due to the concussion he suffered last year, which forced the Giants to go out and sign Levine Toilolo, formally of the San Francisco 49ers. Toilolo has experience on a Super Bowl-caliber team and what a winning culture should look like, an intangible factor that could benefit the Giants in 2020.
However, the two tight ends that I’m most excited to see are Evan Engram and Kaden Smith. Jason Garrett, who likes to utilize a ton of pre-stop motion and heavy a 12 personnel sets, will likely activate both Engram and Smith frequently in the run/pass game.
While Toilolo might feature a fair amount in the run game, considering his 6-foot-8, 268-pound frame, I do believe that Engram and Smith will be heavily featured on offense. They can both block sufficiently and can create mismatches in the passing game. Smith played extremely well in 2019, his rookie season. At just 23 years old, Smith posted 268 yards and three touchdown receptions on just 41% of offensive snaps.
Smith’s development was apparent with each passing game, having started in six after Engram’s foot injury. While he did fumble the ball two times, he managed to recover both of them, which is a negative factor he should be working on this off-season.
Pairing him with Engram should give Garrett too exciting tight ends to utilize in many different ways. Opposing defenses will simply be unable to track and predict what both will do at any given time. Engram works extremely well in mesh routes and streaks up the middle, which we should expect to see plenty of given the activism of Jason Witten and Blake Jarwin in past years.
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Should the New York Giants be worried about Evan Engram?
Last season, Engram posted career lows in yards, and offensive snaps played. He recorded 467 receiving yards with three touchdowns over 42% of offensive snaps. Since his rookie season in 2017, Evan has quickly deteriorated due to injury. The speedy tight end did have some issues with dropped footballs last year, as he dropped three in as many snaps compared to 2018.
If both Smith and Engram can remain healthy and proactive, I believe the Giants will have one of the better tight end tandems in the NFL. We know what Engram is capable of when fully healthy, given his incredible speed and athleticism. If both can hold their own in the trenches, the Giants will have plenty of room for creativity and versatility.