June 24, 2023
During the offseason, we'll be taking a close look at Philadelphia Eagles players of interest who are currently on the roster but we may not know a lot about just yet. Today we'll take a look at tight end Grant Calcaterra.
Previous player reviews
Olamide Zaccheaus | D'Andre Swift | Greedy Williams
Christian Elliss | Britain Covey | Rashaad Penny
Calcaterra was a 2022 sixth-round pick. He missed a big chuck of his rookie season training camp with various injuries, and played 250 snaps on the season, with a spike in action when Dallas Goedert was on injured reserve for five games. He finished with 5 catches on 9 targets for 81 yards.
Calcaterra is a smaller tight end at 6'4, 240, with decent 4.62 speed:
In camp, Calcaterra showed some receiving chops, but it was pretty clear that he has a ways to go as a blocker. Here are those nine targets mentioned above:
One of the themes of Calcaterra's scouting reports coming out of college was that he was a good route runner, particularly with his understanding of where he needed to be against zone defenses. The Eagles face a lot of zone, because opposing defenses are wary of having their backs turned against a running quarterback. Add in that Calcaterra and Jalen Hurts have history together at Oklahoma, and you have some good arguments why Calcaterra is a good fit for the Eagles' offense. There's not much to evaluate on such a small sample size of targets in the video above, so, you know, we won't.
As a blocker, we dinged Calcaterra for one sack allowed on the season. He is not a tight end I would feel comfortable leaving alone against a decent edge rusher, even if his job is just to slow that guy down a bit. He's No. 81 below:
As a run blocker, Calcaterra isn't going to line up as an in-line tight end and rack up a bunch of pancakes in a power scheme. However, there were some moments last season where the Eagles' offensive staff found ways to make Calcaterra useful as a run blocker by playing to his strengths. For example, here he is getting out in front of a designed QB run that went for 24 yards.
Side note: Lol Thibodeaux. Later in that game, same play:
One more: No. 27 isn't going to feel pain from this block the next morning, but Calcaterra does a good job of using his athleticism to get to where he needs to be and allowing Miles Sanders to follow behind him for a 40-yard TD.
He will probably never be an upper-tier blocker, but he is a little more effective than he is given credit for, with room to grow.
Calcaterra is the No. 3 tight end, and he'll have to fend off guys like Dan Arnold, Tyree Jackson, Dalton Keene, and UDFA Brady Russell for a roster spot, though he is well-positioned to do so.
It should be noted that Calcaterra would often line up in the slot or even out wide on occasion. Beyond the No. 3 TE job, there is perhaps some opportunity for Calcaterra to siphon off some of the snaps that went to Zach Pascal, who was essentially playing a dirty work blocking role while lining up at wide receiver last season.
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