Golden Tate Suspension and Sterling Shepard Injury Send Evan Engram's 2019 Fantasy Value Soaring

As a rookie, Evan Engram proved he was a rising star with the New York Giants. However, a down sophomore season marred by injury in 2018 has put a bit of a damper on his fantasy value this year.

However, a recently-announced Golden Tate suspension combined with a slew of injuries to players like wide receiver Sterling Shepard could boost Engram's value.

Since camp opened, here’s the Giants’ WR scorecard:

*Golden Tate is appealing four-game suspension for violating NFL policy on PES.

*Corey Coleman suffered season-ending torn ACL.

*Sterling Shepard fractured thumb, though team does not consider injury to be serious.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) July 27, 2019

With Tate now set to miss the first four games of the year, Engram could see a ton of targets over the first quarter of the season. Additionally, the 124 targets Odell Beckham Jr. saw are now up for grabs, and it's fair to expect Engram to see quite a bit of that action.

While he struggled to stay on the field in 2018, Engram was highly productive when he did play. He racked up 577 yards on 45 receptions, adding three touchdowns. Engram is currently being drafted as TE5, but he has both the talent and opportunity to join the upper echelon of NFL tight ends if all breaks right.

Here’s Evan Engram. Giants have had two team periods so far and he hasn’t participated. Was in position drills. Might be limiting his reps early in camp after he missed much of the spring. pic.twitter.com/dpsPMstALX
— Art Stapleton (@art_stapleton) July 26, 2019

Engram's value may regress a bit once Tate returns from suspension, but he looks like he could be particularly valuable in PPR leagues. If you miss out on one of the three top-tier tight ends heading into 2019, Engram looks like as good a bet as any to break out early this season.

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Max Staley is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Max Staley also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username mstaley1212. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in their articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.