During his rookie 2024 season, Nix started 17 games and completed 66.3 percent of his pass attempts for 3,775 yards (6.7 yards per attempt), 29 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. He helped guide the Broncos to their first playoff appearance since 2015.
“I know we’re searching for a ‘Joker,'” general manager George Paton told reporters last month at the 2025 NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis, via The Denver Gazette.
As The Denver Gazette’s Chris Tomasson wrote in late February, “To Payton, a ‘Joker’ is usually a tight end or a running back that also has top receiving skills.”
Engram fits the bill. His 234 receptions since 2022 are the second-most among tight ends, trailing only four-time All-Pro Travis Kelce. He missed eight games last season due to injury but had a career-high 114 receptions in 2023.
The two-time Pro Bowler was the No. 23 overall pick of the 2017 NFL Draft by the Giants, where he played his first five seasons. Adding Engram gives Nix a proven, reliable target in the passing game.
In 2024, Lukas Krull led the team’s tight ends with 19 receptions, which ranked eighth on the Broncos. Combined, four Broncos tight ends had 51 receptions, 483 receiving yards and five receiving touchdowns.
“The running back and the tight end could obviously help in his development,” Payton said at the combine.
“When you pick 20, it’s not as easy to say, ‘Hey we’re going to find that,'” the Super Bowl XLIV-winning coach added.
Payton’s best offenses — before Denver, he served as Saints head coach from 2006-21 — have prominently featured tight ends.
From Jeremy Shockey to Jimmy Graham, Benjamin Watson to Jared Cook, New Orleans emphasized the tight end position under Payton.
Graham had the most notable success, averaging 1,099 yards and 11.5 touchdowns per season from 2011-14. Watson had a career-high 825 receiving yards in 2015, his age-35 season.
Shockey was the New Orleans’ leading tight end during its Super Bowl run, while Cook’s 16 touchdown receptions from 2019-20 in New Orleans tied with Kelce for the league’s second most among tight ends during that span, per Stathead.
Payton has missed having a high-caliber tight end in his first two seasons in Denver, and signing Engram fixes that. His addition could be exactly what Nix and the Broncos offense need to build off last season’s success.
