On Wednesday, the Philadelphia Eagles placed tight end Dallas Goedert(shoulder) on injured reserve after he injured his shoulder in the team’s 32-21 loss to the Commanders on Monday night.
The fifth-year tight end will miss at least four games, and according to Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni, the team will see where he stands at that point.
“It’s not going to be easy to replace [TE] Dallas [Goedert], and not just one person does it,” Sirianni said Wednesday. “So, we’ll see how long he’s out. Obviously, you know he has to be out for at least four games, and we’ll play that by ear as that goes.”
Goedert was having a Pro Bowl-caliber season and was on track to have a career year as he had 43 receptions for 544 yards and three touchdowns, and Sirianni felt Goedert was playing like one of the best tight ends in football.
“He was having a great year, right?” he said. “To me, he’s having a Top 3, Top 5, Top 2, whatever you want — Top 1 tight end year. So that stinks for us as a team, stinks for Dallas.”
Without Goedert, tight ends Jack Stoll and Grant Calcaterra will get an opportunity. In addition, guys like A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, and Quez Watkins may get more targets, which Sirianni discussed.
“So, how do we replace him? You can’t, right?” Sirianni said. “You have to do it by committee. You have tight ends that are there that; we have a lot of faith in this building; it’ll start with them. Then it goes to where some of his targets go. Probably a couple will go to [WR] A.J. [Brown], probably a couple go to [WR] DeVonta [Smith], and then you have backs that get intertwined in that. Slot receivers that get intertwined with that with [WR] Quez [Watkins]. You just have to balance it out and try to make — you’re not the going to be able to duplicate everything he does because he has a unique skill set. You try to figure out who can do what he does and can they do it, and then you put that stuff in your offense. Then some of it, you might lose some of your stuff in your offense because it’s always about players, as we talk about. I know we have guys in this building that I have a lot of faith in, though.”
Eagles sign DT Linval Joseph
Also, on Wednesday, the team placed DT Marlon Tuipulotu(knee) on IR and signed veteran DT Linval Joseph. According to reports, it’s a one-year deal. The 34-year-old last played with the Chargers in 2021.
“So, we had an opportunity to add a good player that we played against last year and who made things very difficult for us last year in that Chargers game,” Sirianni said. “There are a lot of guys here that have had opportunities to be around him.
“Coach Gannon [Defensive Coordinator Jonathan Gannon], Coach Rallis [Linebackers Coach Nick Rallis], [Vice President of Sports Medicine/Head Athletic Trainer] Tom Hunkele. I mean, there have been a lot of guys who have had experience with him, and we think he’s the right type of guy for the locker room. We think he’s still a heck of a football player, and he’s going to be able to help us.”
