Transcript Tight End Evan Engram

Tight End Evan Engram

July 29, 2021

Q: How was your offseason and your summer?

A: Beautiful. It was amazing. I was down in Atlanta, down there training and spending time with family, got some time away, put a lot of good work in. Like I said, enjoying family time because all my family is down in Atlanta, so having all that was perfect. Staying healthy and putting work in.

Q: Did you lose weight down there?

A: No, my weight is actually the same as it’s always been. Definitely, I feel trimmer, kind of focusing on my diet and stuff and kind of locking in on that, taking care of my body, so same weight. Definitely feel a bit more slimmer and trimmer and feeling good.

Q: Did your approach going into the offseason change at all? I know it’s been a year to year thing.

A: I just took advantage of a fully healthy offseason. Didn’t have any setbacks, no recovery stuff, no lingering injuries, so took a little bit of time off and I took advantage of having a fully healthy offseason and got to work. Same mindset always in the offseason, getting better, attacking things I can improve on, but just taking advantage of a fully healthy offseason.

Q: With the ups and downs that you had last season individually and really as a team, when you stepped away from the season were you able to take pride in the fact that you did complete a season without a serious injury that kept you out?

A: It’s always a blessing to walk off this field injury-free. Playing last year as a season, my first full season, that was a big goal of mine before the year and to finish it off and not have anything lingering afterwards, I definitely took that in as a blessing and was really pleased with that.

Q: Giants fans constantly have expectations which you hear all the time. Can you describe what your expectations for yourself and how much you are aware of what everybody wants you to do on the outside?

A: I’m in this building 24 hours every day. Every day, I have a job to do, every day I have something to attack, something to get better at. I’m not worried about yesterday, I’m not worried about last year, I’m focused on going ahead. I’m definitely not listening to all that stuff. All the opinions I care about are in this building and my family, and I’m working really hard each and every day to attack each day and attack the 24 hours I have.

Q: Second year in this system, how much better of a feel do you have for what you can be going forward or just with your understanding of what they’re asking you to do?

A: Definitely. Second year in, it’s always going to be smoother and you can get a little bit more in the details. Having the big picture stuff down, I’m able to work on the small things each and every day. We’re working hard in the meeting room, hard on the field, walkthroughs, definitely having the system down is huge going into year two in this offense.

Q: We see you with the mask and the mouth guard. How difficult has the NFL made this for guys who are unvaccinated? You’ve been here a few days and have kind of gotten a taste for that.

A: I mean, it’s protocol. It’s something that we have to follow, rules that we have to go by, and we have to respect each and everybody’s decision and just follow the rules. We’ve all had rules our entire careers. This year is definitely a lot more rules, but it’s our job to follow them.

Q: Are there one or two things that you learned from [Head Coach] Joe Judge the last two years after your first year with him? How would you describe him and his attributes as a head coach?

A: You know, the biggest thing I appreciate about Joe is how he always kept the picture going forward. We started off really rough last year, and each week you couldn’t tell it from him and his expectations and his energy towards that. He could see it in our eyes as well. Just his energy, his standard and the way he holds his standard up for himself and the way he holds us to the standard that he’s created for this program, I respect it a lot. You know, you can strap up your helmet and go to war for a coach like that. We’re excited to go into year two with him and get another camp down.