PHLY Philadelphia Eagles Podcast - Eagles tight end Dallas Goedert to miss multiple weeks with sprained MCL | PHLY Eagles Podcast

Episode Date: September 21, 2026

The Eagles will be without Dallas Goedert for the next few weeks after the star tight end suffered a sprained MCL injury against the Tennessee Titans according to a league source confirming an ESPN report. Fran Duffy and EJ Smith break down what the loss means for Jalen Hurts, Nick Sirianni and the rest of the Eagles offense and discuss whether a Zach Ertz reunion with the Eagles is on the horizon in the wake of the injury update. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome in everybody to the PHOI Eagles podcast. We are live from the Xfinity Mobile Studio and presented by the good people at Xfinity as well. My name is E.J. Smith. I'm in the driver's seat right now with Fran Duffy joining me because we have some breaking news on a Monday night. Just, you know, that Monday night football news dump from the Eagles here. Dallas Goddard is going to be out for a few weeks. I can confirm the ESPN report that he has a sprained MCL. He suffered it yesterday against the Tennessee.

see Titans and he will be out for at least a few weeks. It's not clear if the Eagles are going to place him on injured reserve, but still a significant loss for the Eagles offense, given where they stand at tight end and the impact that Dallas Goddard has on the system that they want to run. Fran, I guess first and foremost, what was your initial reaction when you saw the news come across your timeline there? Yeah, I mean, obviously not completely unexpected,

just because of the injury happening yesterday, him being out for the remainder of the game afterwards. But this was obviously not news that the Eagles would have wanted to get at this point in the calendar. You know, we talked all summer, you know, leading at the latter stages of the spring that Dallas Scottert was one of the pivotal, like, fulcrum players for this offense just because of how important he would be in the totem pole from like a target share standpoint as a receiver, but then also what do you mean as a blocker moving forward?

And while he still has not been a great blocker and what we have come to expect from him in the past, he was better than what he was last year. And the Eagles desperately need blockers from their utility players, as we'll continue to talk about. So his presence is absolutely going to be missed in this offense. Yeah. I mean, we talked about it. You said he was like he's a swing player for this offense, not just because of what they want to do schematically, but what they have behind him. If you look at the Eagles roster right now at the tight end position, they've got Grant Calcutera and E.J. Jenkins on injured reserve. So there's two healthy and Eli Stowers. Stowers on injures there. Yes. My apologies.

Jenga. Yep. Yes. So the two healthy tight ends on the roster right now. E.J. Jenkins and Johnny Munn. You know, and E.J. Jenkins has been a fun story to follow throughout the summer and obviously made the 53-man roster, but they really have multiple needs at that spot now. You know, we talked before Goddard's injury about the fact that they didn't really have a good Goddard replacement on the depth chart. You know, they didn't have someone that you could feel good about being at the top of the depth chart if Goddard were to miss time, somebody who could be on the field in 11 personnel and be, you know, versatile enough to be a blocker and a pass catcher, which really does bring us to the next part of this conversation, which is what do you think the Eagles are going to do here? I guess obviously, Zach Gertz is the name that everyone's going to, you know, think about. It's a name that I reported on a couple of weeks ago. I think there's a lot of momentum for this to happen at this point, but I guess how would you size up the options that they have to kind of shore up this position with Goddard sideline? Yeah, I mean, as you mentioned, and we talked about it at 2 o'clock on the

P. H.O. I. Eagle show. The fact that this team needs more than just one body at the position right now. They need help from the receiving end of things. They need help from the blocking end of things. And I think Zach Hertz absolutely helps to fulfill the former. He can come in and be a competent, effective, efficient receiver for quarterback Jalen Hertz. And I think that that would be an important piece to be able to add into the offense. What he's going to do as a blocker, he's not going to solve all their issues at the point of attack. That said, they need to need some help there. So I think that that's something that they need to continue to find ways. You might have to look under the couch cushions and look behind every tree and underneath every

rock and see if you can find a guy that can go out and block at the point of attack. But they're going to need some help there because they're also not getting what they hoped they were going to get out of Johnny Munt this spring and free agency. Yeah. You know, it's it is, it really brings like the whole offseason into the four about how they've handled this position. But just to, you know, harp on earths for a second here. Obviously, before the season, I heard that it was the nine month benchmark that Zacherts was nearing, and that was on September 8th, nine months from that very scary knee injury that he suffered at the end of last season with the Washington commanders. Since then, I would, I guess like from asking around about it, I could say that like Ertz

really wants this reunion. He really would like to, you know, play another season with the Eagles. And Chase, obviously, their all-time receptions list record. He's only 10 away. from breaking that record. And I think that there is a lot of, you know, interest on his side. And I think the Eagles have been open to it. You know, they certainly have not been, you know, closed to the idea. But I think that they probably wanted to see how the season played out, you know, back to the last time that I really heard a lot about this was before Eli Stowers was on injured

reserve. And obviously before Dallas Goddard got hurt, I think the word momentum is the one I just keep going back to. I think, you know, there's just more and more momentum where I think it would make a lot of sense. And then honestly, I wonder even beyond that, to your point, what they could also do at the position. You know, Jack St. St. St. Francisco 49ers practice squad right now. The Eagles have a roster spot open. Obviously, if they sign Zach Erds, they'd have to clear another spot. But, you know, I do think that IR would clear that spot. Right. Exactly. But I, the, the, the IR thing will be

something interesting to watch. I don't have a great sense on if it's going to be an IR injury. And if they don't place them on IR, obviously it means that they think he will be back. within that four-week window. So, yeah, I think that there's two moves to make here. Do you have like a favorite blocking tight end that you, if I told you like you could supercharge this offense as crazy as that sounds with just like a third or fourth guy who can be an inline presence for you? Do you have someone in mind? Well, the problem is is that because it became like the topic to jure in the NFL this off season, like teams all kind of, you know, they scooped those players up, right? And, you know, they drafted them. They took them earlier than expected in the draft as well.

And because of that, teams aren't necessarily looking to trade them either. So it's not like, oh, yeah, they can go trade for this guy. You know, Michael Mayer was like the big name. The Raiders just gave them a boatload of money as their second tight end. And I think that that is also the kind of exemplary of how all these teams like, yeah, maybe they have three or four tight ends. They're using three or four tight ends, right? They're using all of these players. And so, yeah, I don't know that there are teams that are lining up right now to say, oh, you know, I'm going to trade my second tight end to the Eagles.

those aren't going to trade my third tight end to the Eagles to try and help them out. We'll see if there's something, you know, maybe a team starts one and three and maybe something could shake loose. But it is something that they're going to have to get this figured out. I don't know if they're going to have to start having like, you know, bringing that with the short list of tight end, you know, blocking tight ends to come in and work out for them and see what they've got. But even, you know, if and when the rookie second round pick, Eli Stowers comes back, he's not helping you there either. So, you know, I think that it's something that needs to be addressed if they're going to continue to play, that they, the way they want to play with this Sean Manning offense.

Yeah, I have a, I have a note that I want to get to on Eli Stowers, but first we have a super chat from Liam O'Neill. Shout out to Liam in the chat here. $10 super chat, 10 pound super chat actually from Liam here. Appreciate that. Very generous. Evening, gents, how he restructured Nolan's contract last week to free up cap space. Does Howie make a move here or O-Line or safety?

How many turkeys do you put on those three options? Option four being NADA. Specifically with Nolan's contract, I never read restructuring from the Eagles as like a sign that there's, you know, something brewing. I think that they just do that for the flexibility. And also like, you know, I don't know the total ins and outs of the restructuring with Nolan's contract.

Wouldn't surprise me if that was also bracing for the possibility that he's not going to sign long term with the team. I do think if you told me that they were going to make a move somewhere, O line, kind of for the same reason you just pointed out with tight end. Like it's like you're not fine in a starting offensive lineman on the trade block usually in the middle of season, especially not an Eagles level starting offensive linemen. Safety, I'm not ready to pull the panic button on that one yet. So I probably would put most of my turkeys on tight end. But I also think that there's a possibility that they're not

making like a high profile trade between now and the deadline. Yeah, I would say tight end is probably the most likely of the, but for the reasons we highlighted earlier, I do think that it'll be tough to swing. But we'll see. I mean, you never know why. So I'm sure that Howard Roseman is making all those calls to try and see if anybody can shake loose from that end of things. But as I said it on the two o'clock show, I'll say it again, the other way to kind of mitigate this Willie Lampkin time, yeah, I get a start lean or Markell Bell, like whoever that, the sixth offensive lineman, I think that's something they could and should try and lean into more often. It's like, you know, try and push that button a little bit more.

Yeah, it does seem like I don't want to call it a Band-Aid fix because that is probably a little too negative about what it would look like, but it is like a Band-Aid fix for the tight-end room where it's like, you know what, if we don't have a guy who can be a combo guy and we need better auxiliary blockers, better blocking on the perimeter, a six offensive linemen makes a lot of sense there.

And France, Houston Texans did it last year, the Buffalo bills did it the year before. Like, you know, these teams, if they're hurting for blocking at the tight-end position, you're not getting what you, but you want to play this way,

yeah, something's got a gift, right? So you're going to change the way you want to play and throw everything out and start over, or, hey, we've got to find someone to fill that role. Yeah. Well, Fran, the offensive line, you know, machinations that your team has might change, but the price of your internet shouldn't. So check out the five-year price guarantee from our friends at Xfinity.

Before we close here, I want to talk about Eli Stowers just for a minute. You know, I don't want to belabor this, but I do think that the Goddard News puts a little bit more of a microscope or like more of a heightened scrutiny just on the way that this season, has gone for Eli Stowers. I'm not, I don't think it says anything long term, but this is a moment where it's like, okay, the Eagles starting tight end who, you know, they had a long contract dispute with over the off season and is obviously in the latter half of his career, latter years of his career. If you told me that he, that Dallas got got injured, especially knowing what we know

about his, you know, his health the last few seasons, I would have told you, well, they drafted the tight end in the second round. And obviously Eli Stowers is on IR with a hamstring injured. but even if he was healthy, I think we know that he wasn't really going to factor into their plans in this situation. And I do think that that, again, it just kind of is like, it kind of adds a little bit more sting to the way that he looked this summer, the fact that he's not really able to contribute. And also the fact that like this team's crying out for blocking options on the perimeter.

And they drafted Eli Stowers, who even if he was what we expected, he still wasn't going to be a factor in that. So I don't know. It just, it kind of compounds the, the unfortunate, I guess, development that Eli Stowers had this summer. Yeah. I look, Bill, I don't want to hammer at home. I think you hit on all the, all the major points there. It's a player that had a questionable slash concerning blocking profile entering the NFL and that we haven't seen anything to change that over the last six months.

All right, Fran. If anybody joined us midway through, I'm going to clear out and I'm just going to let you break down the news that we just, we just unpacked and kind of where you think. things had from here. All right. So Dallas Goddard has a sprained MCL. He's going to be out for a few weeks. Time will tell if he will end up on injured reserve or not. But at the end of the day, the Eagles are going to need some help in that tight end room.

Seems like the signs are pointing towards a potential reunion with former Pro Bowl tight end, Zach Gertz, one of the all-time greats. I think that he would absolutely help them from the past catching element of things. But this is a team that's still going to need some help from the blocking end of things at the position. So how will they fill that? They've got some options in-house that they can maybe start. to see what does Grant Capitara offer when he gets off injured reserve.

You still have Eli Stowers and injured reserve. Don't expect those guys to help us blockers. They brought in Josiah Deguara to sit on the practice squad. We'll see he's got some Sean Mannion background during their time in Green Bay. So we'll see if he can give you anything. But at the end of the day, this team needs more than one body at tight end to try and fill the hole left by Dallas Goddard's injury. Would have been nice to have Cam Latte right about now.

All right. That's going to do it for the P.H.O.I. Eagles podcast. Thank you to Fran. Thank you to Julia and Lindsay. Give Julia some love in the jazz. We don't get to see Julia a lot on the PHA Eagles podcast these days. So make sure you hit the thumbs up button for her. Let us know in the comments who you think the Eagles should add at tight end.

And we will talk to you tomorrow at 2 o'clock, barring any other breaking news. You know, I got to get some sleep, Fran. You know, I got to get just a little sleep. Not trying to come like up. Yeah, I'm not an excuse guy. Yeah, but, you know, just trying to be healthy. So, all right, we will talk to you tomorrow afternoon. Again, thanks, guys.

And as always, we love you.