Dallas Goedert on Brink of Returning, but Backups Did Well in his Absence

Jack Stoll and Grant Calcaterra picked up the slack during the star tight end's stint on the IR, which could end with a return against the Bears on Sunday

PHILADELPHIA – Every NFL team has injuries. It’s Week 15, after all.

The Eagles, though, will likely get back a key piece on Sunday when they visit the Chicago Bears with tight end Dallas Goedert returning to practice on Wednesday.

The Eagles opened the 21-day practice window on Goedert, who injured a shoulder in the team’s only loss this season on Nov. 14 against the Washington Commanders.

It isn’t expected to take more than a few practices for him to pass whatever baseline test he needs to in order to resume a season that was trending toward one of the best in his career.

In nine games, Goedert has 544 yards receiving and three touchdowns.

“It’s still up in the air,” said Goedert about his return, “but things are trending in the right direction. I gotta go out and practice and see what it feels like full speed and blocking bigger people than the trainers.

“If I was playing (the trainers), I could play for sure. Some of these guys (in the NFL) are a little bit bigger and a little more forceful coming at me.”

In his absence, backups Jack Stoll and Grant Calcaterra rose to the occasion.

The Eagles were 4-0 without Goedert in the lineup.

Stoll played plenty last year as an undrafted rookie, but Calcaterra was the wildcard in the mix when Goedert went down.

The sixth-round pick did just fine.

“You just see he is a scrappy guy and you're seeing that more and more.,” said head coach Nick Sirianni about Calcaterra. “He really has this ability to snatch the ball and then get in and out of breaks. I think he's got receiver qualities, but then he can do enough in the run game, and he has been.

“This is new for him because in the sense of this, on this team, when we were running 12 personnel sets, it was usually with Dallas and Jack. Now it's with Jack and Grant, and Grant has done a really nice job.

“Grant is coming along, and we're seeing some of the special receiver qualities of why we drafted Grant, but then we're also seeing how he's developing in the run game, which is really important, obviously, for tight ends to have, that we keep them balanced, and you can't get any tells when a guy is on the field.”

Still, Goedert is a special talent that will be on the field in his regular role when he is ready.

“Obviously I had to miss the four (games), and I wanted to come back as soon as possible,” he said. “And here we are, and things are in a good direction. Obviously, my activation period got started, so hopefully, all goes well this week.

“It (was) a bummer, but the biggest thing for me is that injuries happen, and when I knew it wasn’t season-ending, I just knew that I’d do whatever I could to get back, and get back to full speed before the playoffs start - now that we clinched. It’s really just trying to get back into the groove of it, just being able to run routes. You’re out for 4 weeks, and it takes a little bit of time to get back.”

Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Fan Nation Eagles Today and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglesmaven.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.