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The Eagles Didn’t Have Much of a Choice in Bringing Back Dallas Goedert, for Several Reasons
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T Mac at ESPN has some details on the new Dallas Goedert deal:
The Eagles and tight end Dallas Goedert reached agreement on a one-year, $7 million contract Sunday, sources told ESPN.
The deal includes a $4.25 million signing bonus, a source told ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
By getting the deal done, the Eagles avoid a dead-cap hit of more than $20 million that would have come when Goedert’s contract expired this Monday. Goedert and the team had agreed to push that void date back multiple times while working out the contract details, delaying when he officially would become a free agent.
The financials were inflexible. If they didn’t figure out a deal, they would have eaten a big dead cap hit that would have affected A.J. Brown trade possibilities.
That’s one part of it, the negative repercussions of letting him walk.
The other part is that Goedert is coming off a career year. He was GREAT in 2025, the best player on the offensive side of the ball, and that was after he took a pay cut to remain with the Eagles after winning a ring. Goedert caught a career-high 60 passes on 82 targets, going for 591 yards and a career-high 11 touchdowns. That set the franchise record for single-season receiving touchdowns by an Eagles tight end, surpassing the 10 scores Pete Retzlaff had back in 1965. Goedert started a career-high 15 games and avoided the injury problems that have hampered him in the past, hauling in 73.2% of passes thrown his way while accounting for 34 first downs and making himself the primary red zone weapon in an offense that was struggling without the tush push. His success percentage of 59.8 was tops among all Eagles skill players and he scored 23.9% of the team’s 46 regular-season touchdowns.
Only blemish? Goedert’s blocking wasn’t amazing, or at least it didn’t seem like it from the eye test. We’ll see how he does this season with a new offensive coordinator and new scheme, as the Birds add Johnny Mundt to the mix.
Beyond all of that, Howie Roseman didn’t exactly have a successor lined up at the tight end position. The Birds have been linked to Oregon’s Kenyon Sadiq, who has been mocked to them by some experts despite having an excellent combine and shooting up the draft board. They do need to find their next Zach Ertz, Brent Celek, Chad Lewis, or Goedert. They need a franchise tight end because Goedert has played eight NFL seasons and is on the wrong side of 30. This is around the same time that Roseman moved on from Ertz, that 8-9 year window.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com