As the Philadelphia Eagles prepare for the upcoming NFL season, veteran tight end Dallas Goedert finds himself firmly entrenched as a reliable, albeit often overlooked, weapon in a high-powered offense. Over his seven-year career, all spent in Philadelphia, Goedert has consistently established himself as a low-end fantasy starter and a vital component of the Eagles’ passing attack. Averaging between 42.3 and 58.5 receiving yards per game in each of his five past seasons, Goedert continues to showcase remarkable efficiency despite battling injuries that have disrupted his availability in recent years.
Last season, Goedert played through various setbacks, including hamstring and knee issues that ultimately cost him seven games. Despite the limited action, he finished the year with 42 catches for 496 yards and two touchdowns, averaging 49.6 yards per game. It marked his fifth consecutive season missing multiple games, though it was his first time missing more than five contests. Throughout his career, Goedert has maxed out at 87 targets in 2019, 830 receiving yards in 2021, and five touchdowns in 2019. He has consistently caught at least two-thirds of his targets every year, earning roughly half of his total yardage after the catch.
As the offense heads into the new campaign, Goedert remains the clear third receiving option behind standout wide receivers A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith within a run-first scheme. While his setup ensures high per-target efficiency, it also limits his chances of averaging more than five to six targets per game or commanding regular goal-line looks. This dynamic has defined much of his tenure in Philadelphia, where he has had to maximize limited opportunities behind primary targets.
Looking back at the previous year, Goedert actually set a career-high with 59 catches and fell just four targets short of his previous best, despite missing three games due to a fractured forearm. However, that high reception total did not translate into massive fantasy production, as he averaged a career-low 10.0 yards per catch. His average depth of target dropped to 5.3 for a second straight year, and his yards-after-catch average declined by 1.9 yards compared to the prior season. A lack of explosive, big plays left Goedert with 592 total yards—his lowest output since 2020—and a per-game average of 42.3 yards, his worst since 2019.
The 6-foot-5 tight end secured exactly three touchdowns for the third time in the past four seasons. Meanwhile, quarterback Jalen Hurts recorded double-digit rushing touchdowns for the third consecutive year and directed 14 of his 23 passing scores toward the dynamic duo of A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith. While Goedert’s efficiency could certainly rebound in the upcoming season, he may also face additional competition for touches following the offseason addition of dual-threat running back Saquon Barkley to the Philadelphia offense.
Goedert’s career has been characterized by remarkable consistency. He has scored between three and five touchdowns in each of his five primary NFL seasons and hauled in 46 to 58 passes in each of the past four years. He has steadily increased his receiving yards per game with each passing season and is coming off back-to-back years yielding better than 10 yards per target. Unfortunately, some of this steady progress has been obscured by a cumulative total of 10 missed games over the past three seasons.
Before establishing himself as a central figure in the passing game, Goedert worked behind veteran Zach Ertz for the first two and a half years of his career, topping out at 607 receiving yards during that initial stretch. Once the path cleared, Goedert broke out with a career-high 830 yards in 2021, reaching the 50-yards-per-game threshold for the first time at 55.3, before improving to 58.5 yards per game in 2022 despite missing five weeks with a shoulder injury.
Although Philadelphia’s defense and backfield underwent significant changes during the offseason, the passing attack and offensive line remain largely unchanged. With Jalen Hurts ascending into the upper tier of NFL quarterbacks, Goedert possesses the talent to challenge or even best many of his career highs, provided he can maintain a relatively healthy stretch of games.
For all the preseason discussions regarding Goedert potentially emerging as the Eagles’ top tight end option in past years, he ultimately finished 17th among tight ends in targets with 76 across 15 games. In fact, he had five fewer targets over the entire year than Zach Ertz saw in just 11 games with Arizona following a midseason trade. To his credit, Goedert maximized his limited volume, finishing just outside the top 10 in catches with 56 and touchdowns with four, while ranking fifth among all tight ends with 830 receiving yards.
His utilization saw a notable uptick following the trade of Ertz, as Goedert recorded at least six targets in six of the 10 games after the move, compared to zero such games during the first six weeks while Ertz was still on the roster. Goedert quickly established himself as Hurts’ second-favorite passing option behind rookie wide receiver DeVonta Smith, though the tight end shifted to the number three spot following the blockbuster acquisition of A.J. Brown. The positive outlook centers on an improving Philadelphia offense and passing game, which could theoretically afford Goedert more red-zone opportunities—an area where he strangely saw just six targets in each of the prior two seasons. The lingering question remains whether he will command enough overall volume to take the next step forward in his career.
Reflecting on his early development, Goedert’s smooth transition to the professional level came as a welcome surprise given the physical demands of the tight end position and his NCAA Football Championship Subdivision background at South Dakota State. His rookie season in 2018 yielded 33 catches and four touchdowns across 525 snaps, instantly establishing the rookie as one of the league’s most promising young tight ends.
In his sophomore campaign, Goedert capitalized on an injury-plagued wide receiver corps in Philadelphia to log 781 snaps, accounting for 70.9 percent of the team’s total and ranking eighth among all tight ends. The Eagles frequently operated out of a two-tight-end base offense, utilizing 12 personnel on a league-high 52 percent of their snaps, which escalated to 66 percent following their Week 10 bye. While Goedert nearly doubled his target total from his rookie year, his yards per target dipped slightly, and he managed just one more touchdown.
The presence of Ertz and the subsequent injection of draft capital into wide receiver positions eventually shifted some personnel groupings, yet Goedert’s dual-threat ability as both a receiver and a solid blocker ensured his continued presence on the field. Selected in the second round after the Eagles traded up three spots in the 2018 NFL Draft, Goedert entered the league widely regarded as the most pro-ready tight end in his class. As he prepares for another demanding NFL campaign, the veteran tight end remains a cornerstone of Philadelphia’s offensive identity.
