Eagles' Dallas Goedert Leading Deep TE Room with Unselfish Approach

The Philadelphia Eagles tight end understands why touchdowns are hard to come by and is stepping up his leadership game in a deep tight end room.

PHILADELPHIA – Dallas Goedert is perfectly happy with touchdowns, no matter how they come.

The Philadelphia Eagles tight end has never had more than five in a season and that was in 2019, his second year in the league. He had just three last year.

There’s a good reason for it.

The Eagles have a punishing ground attack and can score touchdowns without having to put the ball in the air terribly often.

Last year, the ground game posted 32 rushing touchdowns to shatter the team record of 26 set all the way back in 1945, when the game was all about running the ball. Then, in 2021, the first year of head coach Nick Sirianni’s reign, the Eagles ran for 25 touchdowns.

Jalen Hurts is a big reason for that with 23 of the rushing touchdowns the past two years, but so is something else that Goedert noted.

“The biggest thing I could say is we just have a tremendous O-line, so we get inside the 5-yard line and we’ve been able to run it in real well,” he said following Friday’s training camp practice.

“If that ever stops, maybe we could go to me. But it really doesn’t matter who scores. If we can keep running the ball in, I’m happy with that all day long, so hopefully that happens. If not, I’m going to keep working on my craft so when my opportunities come, I can make more plays on them.”

There’s no doubt that for Goedert take to take a step into the current pantheon of the league’s tight ends, more touchdowns would help.

As it is, he is the lead dog in a tight end room that is deep and will be a position that will require some difficult decisions as the roster eventually gets whittled to 53 players.

In addition to holdovers Jack Stoll and Grant Calcaterra, the Eagles added veteran Dan Arnold and have a fully healthy Tyree Jackson, who looked good on the first day of practice with a couple of touchdowns, and undrafted free agent Brady Russell.

“I tell them every day, you have to take advantage of your plays, don’t get upset, put good things on tape, put wins on tape,” Goedert said. “That’s what I always say, and the coaches will see it.

“They’re doing a tremendous job, all five of them in there, they‘re working really hard, learning the playbook, they’re putting good things on film, so it’s really easy for me coming to them. I try to give them as many little coaching points as I can. The first two practices I think all five of them had tremendous practices.”

Goedert, who is signed through 2025, is embracing his leadership role.

“I watch their clips and tell them what I see, I tell them what I’m thinking when I’m running that play,” he said. “The better they can be, the better they’ll push me to be better.

"It’s always keeping football in my mind thinking about what I would do in their position during their plays. I feel like I’m leading them and helping them is also helping myself, so it works hand in hand.”

Ed Kracz covers the Philadelphia Eagles for SI's EaglesToday.

Please follow him and our Eagles coverage on Twitter at @kracze.

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