Eagles' Nick Sirianni addresses Dallas Goedert's lack of targets, again
It's happening again — the Philadelphia Eagles are underutilizing tight end Dallas Goedert. Goedert's production was quiet at the start of last season and he's been pretty quiet through the first two weeks this fall. Sure, the Eagles relied on Saquon Barkley and the run game in Week 1's win over the Green Bay Packers, […]
It's happening again — the Philadelphia Eagles are underutilizing tight end Dallas Goedert.
Goedert's production was quiet at the start of last season and he's been pretty quiet through the first two weeks this fall.
Sure, the Eagles relied on Saquon Barkley and the run game in Week 1's win over the Green Bay Packers, but there's no excuse as to why Goedert wasn't used as a top target in Week 2's loss against the Atlanta Falcons.
With top receiver A.J. Brown sidelined due to a hamstring injury on Monday night, Goedert was targeted just four times. He had three catches for 38 yards.
Of course, head coach Nick Sirianni had an excuse for Goedert's lack of targets.
"You know, we’re in such a small sample size right now. We’d love to get Dallas the ball. Dallas has gotten the ball a lot," Sirianni said. "But different teams play things different ways, whether they junk up the middle, whether they give you things on the outside. Yeah, would we like Dallas to have the ball more? Absolutely, of course we would. But again, sometimes it’s not that simple, either. Because the quarterback goes — we can’t tell the quarterback just throw it to this guy. He’s got to read the defense. That’s why playing quarterback is the hardest position in the NFL, or in sports, in my opinion. They have to read the defense to see where the hit is coming or where the pressure is coming, where the coverage is, all those different things, and deliver the ball where it’s supposed to go.
"So, it’s not always that simple. Now, we can put Dallas at the No. 1 spot where we think it might go, but that doesn’t also necessarily mean that.
"Do we need to get Dallas the ball more? Is that a conscious effort? Yeah, but sometimes it’s not that simple."
Per usual, Goedert wasn't too concerned about his number of targets, but rather what happened overall in the loss.
“I was more frustrated with the loss than I was not having targets, not having receptions,” he said. “It wasn’t much frustration. I was just ready to look at the film to see what happened.”
The Eagles are reportedly expected to be without Brown for a "couple" of weeks.
Maybe they'll reevaluate their game plan to use Goedert more after leaning on Britain Covey amid Brown's absence didn't work out too well for them.
But whether Goedert's used as a pass catcher or run blocker, he plans on giving it his all.
“It’s all dependent on the game plan,” Goedert said. "How the defense is playing me and what plays get called. So, it’s one of those things and whatever play is called I’m going to try my best to get open or if we’re running the ball I’m going to try to spring Saquon (Barkley) or Kenny (Gainwell) or Will (Shipley) as best as I can.”
The good news is that the last time Sirianni addressed this issue, Goedert went off for eight catches for 117 yards and a touchdown in the very next game.
