END OF THE ROAD
Giants trading struggling Engram would be best for both parties
FOR all these years of falling down by the Giants, Evan Engram is as stand-up as you can get. He is a class act.
With that in mind, the Giants should do all they can to trade him.
If ever a player needed the ol’ change of scenery, it is Engram, who was booed vigorously after losing a fumble in Sunday’s 17-14 loss to the Falcons and then cheered mercilessly when he came off the field. The booing was justified, the cheering was cruel, and a clear sign this
27-year old needs a new
NFL home and a fresh start if he is ever to harness his considerable physical talent.
The trading deadline is Nov. 2. Engram will not bring back much, but something is better than the nothing the Giants get for waiting for his contract to expire after this season. A late-round pick in 2022 will be enough of a return. Maybe there is a backup offensive lineman out there someone is willing to part with.
This has run its course. He has become Evan Embodiment, serving as the repository for all the negativism this franchise has created the past five years.
“Obviously it’s not ideal and it’s something you don’t want to see or hear,’’ Engram said Monday, reacting to the boos and cheers that bombarded him at MetLife Stadium.
Sometimes an athlete cannot overcome his own failings and it gets personal. Such was the case with Charles Smith, Knicks power forward, who missed not one, or two, or three but four point-blank shots in the dying seconds of a Game 5 playoff loss to the Bulls in the 1993 Eastern Conference Finals. By the time Horace Grant, Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen (twice) were finished blocking or stripping the 6-foot-10 Smith, the Garden faithful had seen enough. Smith lasted three more seasons before he was traded to the Spurs and the fans never let him forget and never forgave him for coming up small at such a big moment.
With Engram, it is not one singular failing but rather an accumulation of failures that devolved into this derision. The ball and trouble seem to intersect at No. 88. The vat of Engram stew boiled over in Week 7 last season, when he dropped a lob that fell from the sky thrown by Daniel Jones that would have all-but secured a victory in Philadelphia. The ball fell right through Engram’s outstretched hands and soon enough, a 21-16 Giants lead became a 22-21 loss.
After that, there was no benefit of the doubt with Engram, as fans stiff-armed any mention of Engram being a team-first guy and a hard worker and a popular presence in the locker room. It was Michael casting aside his older brother with, “Fredo, you’re nothing to me now.’’
His 2021 debut, after missing the first two games with a calf injury, was painful in the way it unfolded.
Late in the second quarter, Jones found his tight end over the middle for a 13-yard pickup, but as Engram was getting dragged down, cornerback Isaiah Oliver punched the ball loose and recovered the fumble on the Giants’ 36-yard line.
“Every bad play in football there’s things that weren’t done right,’’ Engram said. “On the play I didn’t have the proper ball security. When that stuff happens, when bad details and bad technique happens, bad results come.’’
On the first series of the third quarter, Engram got subbed out and there were pillorying cheers as he made his way to the sideline. Engram looked disconsolate as he stood and heard the jeers.
“I actually think I handled it pretty well,’’ Engram said. “I was able to stay focused, stay locked into my job on the field. It definitely was an opportunity to be a distraction but I didn’t let that get to me.’’
Head coach Joe Judge spoke with Engram on the sideline, and again in the locker room.
“I think Evan’s an extremely mentally tough player,’’ Judge said.
Engram has been around long enough to know what he might be thinking is not necessarily what he understands he should say. He does not view the fans as holding him responsible for all that ails the Giants.
“I don’t really look at it that way,’’ he said. “The fans deserve to see good football. They deserve to see winning football. They’re honest fans, they’re passionate fans and they deserve to see a good product on the field.’’
Is this relationship fractured beyond repair? Fans will not rip Engram if he produces.
“I talk all the time, you better embrace the pressure and the atmosphere in New York because it’s absolutely great,’’ Judge said. “You got to work for the respect of the people here, but it’s that much more valuable when you get it.’’
Could be. But this has the feel of a partnership that needs to get terminated. Let Engram try again, somewhere else, in front of fresh sets of eyes judging his every move.