After agreeing to a “reworked deal” – the NFL code term for pay cut – Eagles tight end Dallas Goedert will have an opportunity win another Super Bowl in what will surely be his final season with the organization that drafted him 49th overall in 2018.
Goedert will also have a chance to finish his Eagles career as the greatest tight end in franchise history – or at least modern franchise history.
How, you ask?
It’s true that Goedert could have a Jerry Rice-like statistical season and it would still be impossible for him to surpass former teammate Zach Ertz in receptions, as Ertz’s 579 receptions with the Eagles are second-most for any pass catcher in team history and his 6.627 receiving yards are fifth-most.
Goedert will enter 2025 with 476 receptions, third all-time behind Ertz and legendary wide receiver Harold Carmichael (589). But with 4,085 receiving yards, Goedert stands no chance of threatening Pete Retzlaff’s 7,412 yards – second-most behind Carmichael in team history.
Pete Pihos would like a word with us?
That’s where it gets tricky.
Pihos, who played for the Eagles and only the Eagles from 1947-1955, has 5,619 career yards to go along with two NFL championships, six Pro Bowls, five All Pros and is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
The issue is that during Pihos’ era, the tight end position actually didn’t exist. Pihos was drafted out of Indiana as a fullback and essentially served as a pass-catching fullback. Offenses during that time played with four “backs” and two “ends.”
Then you get into a discussion about yesteryear’s players and how they’d stack up against today’s modern athlete. It all gets wonky.
So let’s just respectfully put Pihos in his own category – an all-time great, no question – and get back to comparing Goedert against more modern Eagles tight ends.
Ertz has one ring with the Eagles, Retzlaff won an NFL Championship, and Goedert most recently joined the ring club in February, when the Eagles throttled the Chiefs, 40-22, in Super Bowl LIX.
Brent Celek has more catches, yards and touchdowns than Goedert but also played 11 seasons, all with the Eagles, and his per-game averages in receptions and yards are lower than Goedert's. Celek was a very good tight end, for sure, but not considered a top-five player at his position like Goedert is.
So here’s how Goedert could propel into the No. 1 spot.
A second ring, combined with his dual role as pass catcher and run blocker, could be the added context that pushes him ahead of the pack. He'd be the franchise’s only two-time Super Bowl champion tight end, and if he has a typical Goedert season (41 receptions, 673 yards, four touchdowns), it would only add to his legacy.
Goedert Vs. Ertz
Ertz, the second draft pick of the Chip Kelly era, arrived in the league as a polished route-runner out of Stanford whose blocking left much to be desired.
You might recall his unflattering moment from 2016 against the Bengals, when he didn't block linebacker Vontez Burfict on a Carson Wentz scramble and heard about it all week from sports-talk radio callers.
But Ertz’s blocking deficiencies weren’t as debilitating for the offense because he split time with veteran Brent Celek, who came out of Cincinnati in 2007 as a decent pass catcher who worked hard to become a good NFL run-blocker.
The Eagles played quite a bit of 12 personnel (two-tight end formations) for the first few years of Ertz’s career, with Celek serving as an in-line blocker and Ertz flexed into the slot or at the“X” receiver on the back side of a 1×2 formation.
In 2017, Ertz’s first Pro Bowl season and, of course, the team’s first Super Bowl season, Celek played 41 percent of offensive snaps as the Eagles were one of the NFL’s top 12 personnel teams.
Not surprisingly, the Eagles used a high second-round pick the following April on Goedert, who didn’t block much at South Dakota State but came with a 260-pound frame that suggested that he could do it in the NFL.
And that’s where Goedert can win this debate, as his blocking acumen has played a major role in the team’s success, especially after the team traded Ertz, at 31 with gas still left in the tank, to clear Goedert's path to becoming the primary tight end. Shortly after the Ertz trade, the Eagles signed Goedert to an extension.
Goedert is nowhere near the route-runner that Ertz is, but he’s a different kind of passing-game force. He creates yards after the catch because defenders literally bounce off him, and he’s a vital component of a run-blocking unit that has consistently ranked at or near the top of of the NFL in rushing.
Also, the Eagles can be an effective pass or run team out of 11 personnel (three receivers, one tight end) because Goedert can line up at scrimmage and appear to be an extra blocker but release into the field, which causes more guesswork for the defense. In 12 personnel, defenses are typically more keyed into the run game.
Goedert ability to play in-line also makes him prolific weapon in the RPO game, which has been a bread-and-butter for the Eagles in the Nick Sirianni-Jalen Hurts era.
The Eagles have never ranked lower than eighth in rushing since Goedert became the starter in 2022.
Goedert has served as the team’s most critical pass-catcher in the postseason despite the presence of All-Pro receiver A.J. Brown and Pro Bowl wideout DeVonta Smith.
As Jimmy Kempski showed in a graph (sorry, no stick figures), Goedert led the Eagles in receptions and receiving yards (17-215) during last year’s postseason.
Remember, the Eagles were struggling offensively against the Packers in the wild-card round before this happened:
Not that Ertz should be considered a playoff slouch.
Ertz does have two of the three most critical catches in the team’s first Super Bowl, a 4th-and-1 catch in the third quarter that helped set up his 11-yard go-ahead touchdown reception on 3rd-and-seven as the Eagles went ahead of the Patriots, 38-33, with a little more than two minutes to play and never relinquished the lead.
But Goedert was having an incredible game in Super Bowl LVII – six catches for 60 yards, including two huge third-down catches on a third-quarter field goal drive that delivered a six-point lead for the Eagles
We know what happened after that.
Goedert has played four more postseason games for the Eagles than Ertz has, but if you compare their per-playoff game averages, they’re almost identical at about five catches for 47 yards.
Summary: In different ways, both are excellent pass catchers. Both have outstanding playoff moments. Both have rings with the Eagles. But a second ring, combined with his significance to the Eagles’ run game, would propel Goedert over Ertz in the debate.
Goedert Vs. Retzlaff
Like Goedert, Retzlaff won a championship – with the 1960 Eagles. Like Goedert, Retzlaff went to South Dakota State, which is just weird irony.
Even more weird? The two have identical per-game averages for the regular season – 41 receptions, 673 yards and four touchdowns, practically on the nose.
Retzlaff, who played his career for the Eagles from 1956-1966, has far more receiving yards than Goedert because he played 11 seasons to Goedert’s current seven.
But here’s where it gets Pihosian tricky: Retzlaff, a five-time Pro Bowler and Eagles Hall of Famer, began his career as a fullback and also played some running back before moving to split end, which is more of a wide receiver position. He didn’t move to tight end until his ninth season.
You can make a legit argument that his era also isn’t comparable to Goedert’s and Ertz’s era, and therefore, it’s a moot debate.
Summary: Goedert will never reach Retzlaff’s career yards or Pro Bowls and might not be an Eagles Hall of Famer, but Philadelphia is all about championships, and if Goedert can be a central part of another Super Bowl win, he’d be tough to argue against as the franchise’s top modern tight end.
Overall
The ring is the thing. Goedert has one, but so do his predecessors. If he can bring home another title as a vital cog in the team's offense for another season, he'd instantly enter the conversation as the franchise's best tight end of all time, and it would be tough to argue against it.
