Eagles’ Dallas Goedert finding a unique way to improve
Dallas Goedert is one of the best tight ends in the NFL. You can debate his ranking but hes already on the list.
Hes not resting on that.
Goederts eyes lit up last week as he began to rattle off all the ways he wants to improve as he enters Year 6 in the NFL.
I feel like this is a profession where you can never stop growing, Goedert said. I feel like when you do that, youll get passed.
Goedert, 28, said there are a bunch of areas in his game he wants to improve but what really stood out is that hes been spending an awful lot of time with Eagles receivers specifically A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith and Greg Ward to sharpen his routes and releases. Goedert will stick around after practices to work with the receivers.
Its something that he started doing last season.
With the new coaches, the expectations of our routes changed, the details of our routes changed, Goedert said. (Remember, Nick Sirianni is a former receivers coach.) They made it more detailed and he had specific things that coaches are looking for. So that just starts to hit your brain.
And then Smitty and A.J., you see what they do day in, day out, game in, game out. Just constant wins. So Im just going to try to pick their brains so I can elevate my game.
That process has continued this spring, with Goedert spending a lot of time with the receivers. And like Brown said, theres nothing wrong with experimenting a bit in spring workouts. Its kind of like a baseball pitcher trying stuff in spring training.
In the two years since Sirianni has been the head coach, weve seen a lot of cross-pollination in position rooms. A lot of the veterans on the team are happy to share tips to players at their position, on their side of the ball and even on the other side of the ball.
Hes been doing a great job. Im excited for him, Brown said. The more he works with us, the more hes going to be moving around like us. Im definitely excited for that. The more guys that come work with us, the better its going to be.
Goedert is already really good. He was well on his way to a career season in 2022 before suffering a shoulder injury that sidelined him for five games in the middle of the year. In the 12 games he did start, Goedert had 55 catches for 702 yards and 3 touchdowns. In the Super Bowl, he caught 6 of 7 targets for 60 yards.
Had Goedert stayed healthy, he likely would have made his first career Pro Bowl, he might have hit 1,000 yards and he might have even earned a second-team All-Pro nod.
Last week, Goedert admitted reaching some of those milestones would feel pretty great.
Me being the competitor I am, the person I am, I want to be the best, to make All-Pro, he said. To be a Pro Bowler would be everything you dream of as a kid. But I dont put that stress on me or anything. I care about the success of the team more than my individual success. Whatever it takes to help the team win games, thats what Im going to do. If I get praised for it, thats good. If not, you know, well just keep winning games because thats more fun than anything.
The Eagles drafted Goedert in the second round back in 2018 and he had to wait his turn. While he played early in his career, Goedert was still the Eagles second tight end behind Zach Ertz and didnt take over as the Eagles true TE1 until Ertz was traded in October of 2021.
In the 22 regular season games Goedert has played since that trade, hes caught 96 passes for 1,316 yards and 5 touchdowns.
Last year, his first full season as the Eagles top tight end, Goedert averaged a career-high 58.5 yards per game, ranking second in the NFL to future Hall of Famer Travis Kelce (78.7) and ahead of Mark Andrews, T.J. Hockenson and George Kittle. Hes also one of the few tight ends in the league whos just as dangerous as a blocking weapon.
Like we said, Goedert is already one of the best tight ends in the NFL. And its fun to see how excited he is to keep getting better.
Really all aspects of my game I want to improve on, Goedert said. I want to get more efficient on the top of my routes, I want to get better at the releases, my hand placement on blocks could be better, my angles could be better. Its just non-stop. You can watch film and correct something on every play.
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