Jason Witten is a Cowboys great. He is a historic Giants-killer. He is a future Hall of Famer.
Evan Engram describes Witten one other way: A “pioneer.”
The way the 6-foot-3, 240-pound Engram plays tight end for the Giants wouldn’t be possible if not for Witten and contemporaries such as Tony Gonzalez paving a path for a new mold of game-breakers.
If Engram entered the draft when they did, he might have been asked to change positions rather than be coveted as a first-round pick because then tight end was “like an extra offensive tackle.”
“You have those pioneers who changed the way the game is played,” Engram told The Post. “I have to be appreciative because now the tight end position is looked at as a weapon, as a mismatch.”
Engram remembers joining the Giants as a rookie in 2017 and getting a laptop with cut-up film highlights of Witten. He watched video of Witten’s retirement press conference after that season and remembers Cowboys coach Jason Garrett gushing over a memory of Witten making a big play in a playoff game, getting up off the ground and pointing out his 10 teammates who all did their jobs to make it possible.
The 37-year-old Witten spent his one-year retirement in the “Monday Night Football” booth, but rejoined the Cowboys this season. For the fourth time, Engram and Witten will be the featured tight ends in a head-to-head rivalry matchup Monday night at MetLife Stadium.
“Any time you are on the field playing with or against a guy who has set the standard at your position and is a Hall of Famer, you have to take advantage of seeing that any way you can,” Engram said.
“After having a year off, they are doing a really good job of using him to his strengths and not asking him to do too much. He’s able to be himself and still be a good veteran presence.”
In the Week 1 matchup between the teams, Engram and Witten scored short-field touchdowns on similar plays. Both faked staying in to block the edge on a play-action fake, then broke to the corner of the end zone to create an easy throwing window as their respective quarterbacks rolled in that same direction.
No coincidence.
“Obviously, Witt has been a special player,” Garrett said. “There is no question that Engram is on his way, because he is a really, really, productive player for them. He has great skill. It’s easy to see why their quarterbacks like throwing to him because usually good things happen.I have a lot of respect for him and think he’s going to be a really good player for a long time.”
Witten already was 10 years into his NFL career in 2013, when Engram faced “tight-end bias” on the college recruiting circuit. He had just two Power Five program scholarship offers — Wake Forest and Mississippi — because other coaches were trapped into old thinking about tight ends.
“I wasn’t getting a lot of looks because I didn’t have the speed that I have now and teams were like, ‘Eh, we need more of a true tight end or a true receiver,’ ” Engram said. “Luckily, Ole Miss was starting to open up that fast, mobile, hybrid tight end offense.”
Engram, 25, wore a Mark Bavaro jersey around the locker room last week in celebration of the NFL-created holiday of National Tight Ends Day.
Bavaro won two Super Bowls with the Giants and was renowned for combining a 1,000-yard receiving season with a willingness to block pass-rushers like Reggie White. In a way, Bavaro, who retired from the Eagles in 1994, is the link on the tight end chain leading into the Witten.
“As soon as I got here, I kept hearing, ‘Bavaro. Bavaro. Bavaro,’ ” Engram said. “He’s just a staple at that position in this franchise. You look back at the vintage clips and he’s either got three guys on his back with the ball in his hands or putting someone in the dirt in the run game. The fan base loves their history of this team, so I added that to my motivation of playing hard every Sunday and putting it all on the line like Bavaro did.”
Witten is the Cowboys’ all-time leader in receptions, receiving yards and could finish tops in touchdown catches, with 16 of his 70 coming against the Giants. But he got those opportunities because he was a three-down tight end who didn’t need a blocking caddy.
“I want to be the full package, too,” Engram said. “If you make sure the run game pops, your opportunity is going to come in the pass game. There’s good karma there. I take pride in being the physical guy and not backing down from anybody.”
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