Jaguars Officially Franchise Tag Evan Engram

The veteran tight end will now have until July to sign a long-term deal.

As expected, Evan Engram will be a Jacksonville Jaguar in 2023.

The Jaguars officially placed the franchise tag on Engram on Monday, a day before the deadline. The two sides will now work toward a long-term agreement, with Engram having until July 17 to sign a multi-year contract. 

Teams and franchise players can sign multi-year extensions until July 17 (the typical deadline is July 15 unless on a weekend; because July 15 is on a Saturday this year, the deadline is the following Monday).

Jacksonville and general manager Trent Baalke have used the franchise tag in each of the last two offseasons, each time placing it on left tackle Cam Robinson. Robinson played the 2021 season on the tag, but he signed a contract extension last April after initially being tagged. This is technically the fourth year in a row the Jaguars have used the tag after they tagged Yannick Ngakoue in 2020. 

Engram had a career year in 2022 as he caught 73 passes for 766 yards and four touchdowns, along with 12 catches for 124 yards and a touchdown in two playoff games.

"Lord knows how excited my family and I are to be staying in Jax! Hopefully we can get a long term deal done soon 🙏🏽," Engram tweeted on Monday.

"So hopefully something gets done and, and I think, you know, it's mutual over there. Haven't had too many conversations yet. But the interest is there on both sides for me to come back," Engram told SiriusXM NFL Radio on Feb. 20.

"And obviously, I would love to come back as well. But like you said, it's a business. Man, I definitely felt like you know, I put a lot of great things on film, I had a lot of great results this year, and I was a big part of helping my team win. So when you do that, at the pass catcher position, we have a lot of highlight plays, and you know, you do something special with the football, you know, those guys get taken care of financially-wise."

"It's a hypothetical. So it could happen, it could not. But you know, if that happens, I think that'll be a placeholder, you know, to get something done. I think that's just kind of just the way I feel about it," Engram said when asked about the tag in February. 

"And if it does come to that, you know, there'll be conversations had with my team and we'll move forward from there, but if that does happen, I'm gonna be blessed either way, and we'll figure something out long- a term that can mean that both sides will be happy with this."