A physical Dallas Goedert showed his value to the Eagles, but the team’s long-term plan at tight end is cloudy

Nick Sirianni regularly shows and emphasizes the physical plays the Eagles make in games during a weekly team meeting at the beginning of the practice week.

The rewind button was clicked a few times this week when the team watched back Dallas Goedert’s third-quarter touchdown. Goedert caught a pass on the left side of the formation, got a block from A.J. Brown, bullied through a tackle attempt from Green Bay Packers cornerback Carrington Valentine, then used a nasty stiff-arm to Valentine’s face twice on his way to the end zone.

The physical nature of one of the NFL’s most physical teams starts with the offensive line, Goedert said, “and everybody just tries to follow along.”

Goedert did that Sunday on his score and when blocking. The tight end was back on the field with the Eagles regulars for the first time since suffering a knee injury on Dec. 1 in Baltimore, and had a productive day with four catches on six targets for 47 yards — a bright spot on a day when the passing offense was otherwise shaky in a victory.

“It was a lot of fun,” Goedert said. “Every time I’m on the field, my goal is to help the team win in any way I can and I feel like I did a good job of that this week.”

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It has been a frustrating season for Goedert, who missed practice Thursday due to an illness. Before the knee injury that forced him to miss four games, Goedert missed three games from Week 7 to Week 9 with a hamstring injury. Ten games marked the fewest he has played during his seven-season NFL career and put his per-season average of games played at just 12.4 over the last five seasons. The 30-year-old’s two regular-season touchdowns were a career low, and his 42 receptions also are his fewest since he caught 33 passes during his rookie season in 2018.

When healthy, Goedert is one of the best tight ends in the NFL, but the Eagles also showed they can win plenty of games without him, which makes this upcoming offseason an interesting one at the position as next season is the last year of the four-year, $57 million extension Goedert signed in 2021. It was a bit surprising that the Eagles didn’t begin to plan for life without Goedert in last year’s draft considering that Goedert was already older than Zach Ertz was at the time the Eagles drafted his successor.

The Eagles have money to commit to others, and a salary-cap hit nearing $12 million for a tight end who never gets through a full season is a steep cost.

All of that, though, is fodder for what Goedert and the Eagles hope is weeks away.

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Up next is the Rams, a team that has struggled to cover tight ends. Only three teams gave up more yards to tight ends than the Rams did, and only one allowed more receptions. Goedert, assuming his illness isn’t anything that will limit him, will be an important part of what the Eagles do Sunday, both in the passing game and when he’s blocking for Saquon Barkley.

Asked Wednesday if people might have been “sleeping on” his capabilities given the year that was, Goedert said he doesn’t worry about other people’s opinions.

“I think the people in this building know what I’m capable of, know what I bring to the table each and every time,” he said. “So I’ll leave that to other people, but I got full belief in myself and I think I got the full belief of everybody on the team in me as well.

“But it’s important to go out there and keep reminding people.”

The Rams weren’t one of the top teams in the NFL when it came to sacking opposing quarterbacks during the regular season, but on Monday night they put Minnesota in a hole early and forced the Vikings into passing situations. Then they tormented Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold en route to nine sacks.

Eight Rams were credited with at least a partial sack, including rookie edge rusher Jared Verse, a first-round pick out of Florida State who needs no reintroduction to Jordan Mailata.

“I remember when I got flat-backed,” Mailata said when asked what he remembered about Verse when the teams met on Nov. 24. “That’s what I remember.”

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Mailata said he’s hoping the Eagles communicate up front better than they did against Green Bay. The lack of communication stood out on film, Mailata said.

What are the Rams doing better on defense than they were when the Eagles ran all over them for 300-plus yards in Week 12?

“I saw a well-coached defense,” Mailata said. “You could see it in their rush, the rushing lanes as well. I’m not going to gas them up that much. I can’t do that. I think we have a good system here as well. We’ve got great players. It’s good on good.”

Goedert was the only player on the active roster to miss practice Thursday.

Brown was a limited participant (knee/rest) as the Eagles continue to manage his workload. The rest of the team fully participated in Thursday’s session, including the four Eagles who rested Wednesday: Barkley, Cam Jurgens, Mailata, and Josh Sweat.

The Eagles play host to the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday in the divisional round of the playoffs. Join Eagles beat reporters Olivia Reiner and EJ Smith as they dissect the hottest storylines surrounding the team on Gameday Central, live from Lincoln Financial Field.