Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson shed light on the pre-game hamstring injury tight end Evan Engram suffered before Jacksonville hosted Cleveland in Week 2, suggesting his status for the club’s Week 3 Monday Night Football matchup at Buffalo is currently up in the air.
“It was significant enough to keep him out, hold him out of the football game yesterday,” Pederson said Monday. “We’ll see where he is this week. [I’m] optimistic but we’ve just got to see. Hamstrings can be funny. So, it’s kind of a week-to-week deal right now with him.”
News of Engram’s injury, which Pederson noted occurred before Jacksonville’s pre-game warmups as the tight end loosened up for the game, broke minutes after the Jaguars revealed their inactive list.
Engram was not on the report, leaving the team with two tight ends available against Cleveland, Brenton Strange and Luke Farrell. Strange started the game and caught three of his six targets for 65 yards, while Farrell caught two-of-two for 13 yards in a rotational capacity.
Pederson acknowledged Engram’s last-minute sidelining was unnerving for the Jaguars as they prepared to face the Browns, noting the leadership position he occupies in his third season with the team.
But Pederson did not consider Engram’s absence substantial in how it impacted Jacksonville’s offense, which scored 10 points and managed only 109 yards through the first three quarters of the 18-13 loss, other than Cleveland did not deploy certain coverages as often as the Jaguars anticipated in their original gameplan.
“Obviously when you lose a player like Evan, it can definitely take a little wind out of your sails, just a little bit. He’s a leader, he’s obviously a starter, he’s a captain. I mean, it’s a big loss. But that’s the thing: We could have lost him in pre-game, we could have lost him in the first play of the game, and you’ve got to continue to play. We can’t let things like that affect us…
“But as far as the game yesterday, I don’t think it necessarily affected us as much. Maybe a little more big nickel or three safety type that the Browns could have presented with Evan on the field, you know, with two tight ends. But other than that, it didn’t really affect us too much.”
Engram led Jacksonville with 114 receptions last year, the second-most in a single season in franchise history behind wide receiver Jimmy Smith’s in 1999. Through two seasons and one game with the Jaguars, Engram has caught 188 passes for 1,734 yards and eight touchdowns.
In the event Engram can not play against Buffalo and beyond, Jacksonville will likely look to its practice squad for a third tight end, with veteran Josiah Deguara and undrafted rookie Shawn Bowman currently part of that unit.
“It’s always been a next-man-up mentality and that’s something that we continue to preach. You know, we’re going to continue to keep that rolling,” Pederson said.
“If we bring somebody up, you know, Josiah or Shawn off the practice squad this week, if that’s the case then we’ve got to get them ready to go.”
