Fans expect them to come in and produce but it's a real tough position to do that at. Some staffs can keep it simple, i.e. use a passing game weapon type TE in the slot primarily, but eventually you gotta be able to do different things to get the full effect of how hard the TE position is to stop; guys who can block well or hit the pattern are very hard to focus when the beginning of the play has them selling the run action for a second or two.
There's a reason these guys often don't kill it in their rookie seasons. So even a talent like Engram is not shoe-in to do that, and if you take him it isn't with the mindset of him giving you production over last year's rook TE, it's because you like the player's upside and fit long term.
I do think Higbee's injury history means they're going to be thinking about bringing in another good TE when value is there. Which it will be at some point in this draft, almost for sure.
