September 01, 2026
Bill Streicher/IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
The Eagles are leaning on Dallas Goedert for one more year at tight end, but likely realize they can't for much longer.
At this point, Dallas Goedert has been operating on a year-by-year basis, with the Eagles knowing that they're much closer to a future without him than not.
And they knew, at some point, that they had to start preparing.
But they passed on taking a tight end entirely in the 2025 draft, opting to re-up Goedert for another season while they kept looking for his successor.
Heading into 2026, they landed on Vanderbilt's Eli Stowers in the second round, a prospect who brought a lot of raw athleticism, but with the understanding that he would be a project to develop into an NFL tight end.
The Eagles, though, believed they could afford that. One more year of Goedert would buy enough time to gradually bring Stowers up to speed, and under the best-case scenario, would see the torch handed off to Stowers by the end of it.
But right now, it's just not working out that way, which brings a bit of urgency to a situation that the Eagles thought they were laying the groundwork toward addressing.
Stowers had a brutal camp, where he was just invisible at his best, but across the summer got bad enough to where our own Jimmy Kempski couldn't even say that the 23-year-old was playable.
Still, he made the roster because it's an ugly look to cut a second-round pick that soon. But really, it leaves the Eagles' tight end depth chart for 2026 down to Goedert as the starter, for presumably one more time, 31-year-old Johnny Mundt as a blocking specialist, and E.J. Jenkins as a now veteran reserve they were comfortable enough to keep, while the expectation is that Stowers will be an indefinite gameday inactive.
It's not a tight end room for the long haul, considering that Stowers hasn't even shown at least a flash of being a future starter.
And with a more pass-heavy offense expected under new OC Sean Mannion, it's likely not even a complete one for the short-term either, unless one more pass-catching option to work in tandem with Goedert is brought in sometime in the next week, which feeds into the buzz surrounding a potential Zach Ertz reunion.
For now, general manager Howie Roseman, who spoke to the press on Monday about the Eagles' 53-man roster, spoke around the subject of Ertz interest when asked about it, along with the overall outlook at tight end, like he's been known to do when he tends to have something brewing.
"You know, first I'd say what an unbelievable player, what an unbelievable person, tremendous respect for him," Roseman said of Ertz. "At the same time, I love what we have going in our tight end room, too. So I would say, you know, have talked to Zach over a period of time, obviously, rehabbing his ACL and the relationship, just like a lot of our former players who've been here. But like anything else, wouldn't get into any conversations about anything other than from a big-picture perspective.
"My opinion, one of the greatest tight ends to play the game. Just tremendous respect for him, and also excited about the tight ends that we have here."
But in the big picture, there is a way for Ertz to fit in now.
Zach Ertz was a dependable veteran pass catcher for Washington prior to his ACL injury.
Peter Casey/IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
Prior to his ACL tear suffered in December, Ertz, even in his mid 30s, kept as a dependable pass-catching option within the Washington Commanders' offense.
In 2024, he had 66 receptions for 654 yards and seven touchdowns at an average of 9.9 yards per catch, then caught 50 passes for 504 yards and four touchdowns at a clip of 10.1 yards per reception before he got hurt.
It's a level of production that isn't too far off from Goedert, who for as good as he's been, usually also misses some amount of time due to injury during the season as the leading tight end.
Goedert made 42 catches for 496 yards and two touchdowns in 2024, but played only 10 regular-season games, then caught 60 for 591 yards with a by far career-best 11 touchdowns in 2025, but all within a notoriously sputtering offense.
Goedert is likely to still be an effective pass-catching option for 2026, but knowing that the plan for the Eagles' offense this year is to spread the ball around way more, while also knowing now that rookie wideout Makai Lemon may not be able to produce just yet, if Ertz still has his route-running and hands to him, then it may be worth the call.
Both as a means to quickly strengthen up the passing game before Week 1, and for the Eagles to give themselves the runway to start building out another tight end succession plan if Stowers still can't find his way onto the field.
Because while it still early, maybe they do have to start thinking about that now, or rather, again.
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