Pat McAfee Renders Exciting Outlook After Broncos Sign TE Evan Engram

After the Denver Broncos' free-agent signing of tight end Evan Engram, the window of opportunity to double-dip for a dynamic playmaker just swung wide open. Going draft shopping will never have felt so good — having multiple options is a luxury free agency can provide, but only if it's done right.

While we can expect the Broncos to cool off when it comes to their free-agent spending spree, the draft will now be counted upon to furnish the offense with a new No. 1 running back. Denver's early moves in free agency have been mostly lauded in the press.

Outspoken pundit Pat McAfee is particularly high on the Broncos' recent acquisition of Engram. After dealing with the dysfunction down in Jacksonville, Engram's football liberation will come in the shape of head coach Sean Payton, according to McAfee.

"So, whenever you think about this Sean Payton -led Denver Broncos. They were much better than anyone could have imagined," McAfee declared on his show. "Much better than anyone could have imagined with the amount of dead cap they had—not just Russell Wilson—everything else they had going on. With what the Denver Broncos had been over the past few years—just a mess. They got a rookie quarterback in Bo Nix, he was good at the beginning of the year, got great at the end of the year. Sean Payton's culture seemingly settling in, and now he's got a dog in somebody he's viewing as a 'joker' just like he was with Taysom Hill, whenever he was down there in New Orleans. In the way that he operated his offense, it's like, are the Broncos going to be real? They are in a tough division. But I think the Broncos are on a green arrow up, and Sean Payton only wins. I think that's all I've ever really known him to do."

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Broncos Country will remain hopeful that McAfee's analysis that Payton "only wins" holds true for next season and beyond. For as formulaic as McAfee might be making the Payton master plan out to be, it's been no walk in the park thus far.

For things to really work, the Broncos needed a bonafide franchise quarterback. Check. Hello, Nix. Plus, the Broncos needed a "joker" to emerge from the draft or free agency. Enter Engram, fans hope.

It's taken contrasting strategies and Payton diligently working with Broncos GM George Paton to realize that plan. Only when the front office dispensed with the debris left behind by the catastrophic Russell Wilson signing and subsequently drafted Nix was the Walton/Penner group's purse strings finally loosed on free agency.

It's nice having a franchise quarterback on a rookie contract. More balanced finances also meant the Broncos could compete against their divisional rival Los Angeles Chargers for Engram's signature. These offseason wins matter within the notoriously cutthroat AFC West.

McAfee is right on the money. Nix went from good to great as the 2024 season progressed, so it's no stretch to assume that with Engram being featured as the joker within Payton's playbook, the Broncos quarterback could really flourish in Year 2.

After all, Payton has a proven track record for unearthing multi-dimensional gems like Jimmy Graham and Taysom Hill. If Payton can add Engram's name to that famous list of prolific jokers, perhaps the ascending Broncos may have really entered a new Super Bowl window.

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