Of all the players the Eagles have drafted since Howie Roseman reclaimed the general manager role, Dallas Goedert is easily the best (besides Carson Wentz). He’s already among the best at the position and he still presents great upside.
He was an obvious luxury pick when the Eagles snagged him in the second round of the 2018 draft, but the pick has still paid dividends for the team over the past two years. Since entering the NFL, Goedert has posted the fifth best overall Pro Football Focus grade for the position, ahead of Zach Ertz.
There’s a strong argument that Goedert is already a better overall tight end than Ertz. Geodert outperformed Ertz in every major PFF grade for the position last year, including scoring four points higher in his receiving grade, which is probably pretty surprising to most fans.
What really separates Goedert from Ertz is his blocking ability. His PFF blocking grade since 2018 ranks second among tight ends behind Arizona Cardinals TE Maxx Williams and ahead of San Fran’s George Kittle.
He did have some bone headed drops last season — most notably the sure fire touchdown grab against the Detroit Lions — but his receiving numbers still progressed greatly from year one to year two. He saw 66% of the offensive snaps in 2019, an 18% increase from his rookie season. With his boost in opportunities, Goedert racked up 58 catches for 607 yards and five touchdowns, not to mention a solid performance in the wildcard game against Seattle with Ertz banged up, seven catches for 73 yards.
Ertz still put up better numbers than Goedert in 2019, but he also played 162 more snaps than him. I’m not saying Geodert is light years better than Ertz by any measure, but as an overall tight end with receiving and blocking, Geodert has the slight edge.
With all that being said, I’m not advocating for Ertz to get traded either — at least not yet. Having two elite tight ends is rare in the NFL. No other team has two top-10 tight ends on their roster, not even close. They both present huge mismatches for opposing defenses, and with all the added speed at the wideout position, Ertz and Geodert should be lethal on seams and crossing routes over the middle this season.
If Geodert continues to develop and outperform Ertz on the field, then we’ll revisit the trading Ertz discussion next offseason. But for now, we should be ecstatic about how this offense will look next season with these two dominating the middle of the field.
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