Eagles Predicted to Replace $57 Million Playmaker
Tight end Dallas Goedert has been a valuable contributor for the Philadelphia Eagles offense over eight years. But his tenure with the team could be coming to an end at the conclusion of the 2025 NFL season.
CBS Sports’ Mike Renner sees that to be the case. Renner projected the Eagles to replace Goedert in the first round of his latest 2026 NFL mock draft.
At No. 28 overall in the new mock, the Eagles selected Oregon tight end Kenyon Sadiq.
“With this potentially being Dallas Goedert’s last season with the Eagles, finding his replacement is a must,” Renner wrote. “Even if it’s not Goedert’s last, they still play enough 12 and 13 personnel to make this a need — especially with how poor their backup tight ends have been in the run game, where Sadiq gets after it.”
Through roughly the first half of the 2025 season, Sadiq has posted 21 catches for 305 yards. He’s just four yards shy of a new career high.
Sadiq also has a career-best 14.5 yards per catch average and five touchdowns this season.
Goedert, who turns 31 years old in January, has shown signs of slowing down. In six games this season, he has 27 catches for 261 yards. His 9.7 yards per reception average is a career low.
However, Goedert has already tied his career best of five receiving touchdowns.
Eagles Already Considered Moving on From TE Dallas Goedert
It wouldn’t be shocking if this is Goedert’s last season with the Eagles. That’s because, according to Jeff McLane of The Philadelphia Inquirer (h/t NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo), the Eagles already considered trading him.
McLane reported Philadelphia received offers for the tight end during the 2025 draft. Instead of dealing Goedert, though, the Eagles restructured his contract.
Goedert has a $10 million salary this season. Over eight years in Philadelphia, the tight end has earned about $57.3 million.
The decision to keep the veteran tight end is paying significant dividends. Goedert leads the team in receiving touchdowns after seven weeks.
Goedert leads the Eagles in that category despite missing a game.
But the veteran tight end isn’t the playmaker in the middle of the field he once was.
Why the Eagles Could Target Oregon TE Kenyon Sadiq
There’s still a long way to go until the 2026 NFL Draft. Depending on free agency and injuries, the Eagles could have other more pressing needs than tight end by April.
But even if Goedert returns for 2026, tight end will very likely be a need for the Eagles entering the draft.
Fellow tight end Grant Calcaterra was a candidate to take away playing time from Goedert this fall. Before the season, some pundits argued Calcaterra could make Goedert expendable for the Eagles.
But in five games, Calcaterra has just four catches for 40 yards. He doesn’t have any touchdowns, and in his small sample, he’s averaging roughly the same amount of yards per catch as Goedert.
It doesn’t appear his production is going to increase any time soon either. Calcaterra has missed the past two games with an oblique injury.
Sadiq is experiencing his best statistical season at Oregon. He was the first tight end off the board in Renner’s latest mock.
Cowboys Legend Sends Strong Message to George Pickens
At this point, the Dallas Cowboys look like they have two of the top-five wide receivers in the NFL. Star wide receiver George Pickens has been as good as anybody could’ve imagined, and continued that against the Washington Commanders in Week 7 with 82 yards on four receptions.
On the season, Pickens already has 607 yards on 36 receptions, including six touchdowns.
With CeeDee Lamb back in the mix, some questioned if he’d still get the football as much or be as dominant as he has been for the Cowboys, but it was clear in Week 7 that he’s still someone Dak Prescott is looking to get the football to.
However, with a contract situation coming up for the Cowboys, it’s a question that looms. Some believe they’ll allow him to walk, while others want him to stay around. That includes former Cowboys legend Dez Bryant, who said that he should look at him and Lamb and want to grow together and be in the Hall of Fame together one day.
“I’d tell George, ‘I guarantee you, brother, it won’t be like this nowhere else. You & CeeDee, you guys are dynamic. Stay together, grow together, go into the HOF together,” he said on 105.3 The Fan.
Should George Pickens Want to Stay With the Cowboys?
Bryant delivers an intriguing pitch for Pickens to stay with the Dallas Cowboys, but players prioritize getting paid. Pickens won’t stay on the roster long-term if the Cowboys fail to make a competitive offer.
The NFL enforces a harsh reality: players earn their pay.
Will George Pickens Want to Leave the Cowboys?
There are also some other aspects that the Dallas Cowboys have to consider, including the fact that Pickens and Micah Parsons both have the same agents.
When Parsons went through this a few months ago, the Cowboys clearly didn’t value him as much as Parsons and his agent thought he was worth. As a result, they traded him to the Green Bay Packers.
Jerry Jones doesn’t believe that’s a problem.
“Don’t pay any attention to that at all. No attention,” Jones said, per Jon Machota of The Athletic. “Too much was made of that — that the agent had something to do with the ultimate decision of where we were. It almost had zero to do with it, period. That’s not a negative; it just didn’t have that kind of influence. I was going to be where I was with Micah, relative to dollars and cents, no matter who represented him.”
Jones took a risk this past offseason by trading for Pickens, considering some of the on-field issues he had. There was never much of a debate about his talent, but Pickens was often seen doing things that he shouldn’t have been doing.
With that out of the picture now, according to Jones, it gives him even more of a reason to go out and get the money he wants.
“He is doing more than we did expect or that we could have expected,” Jones said when speaking about Pickens’ contract. “What’s really special is he’s a real plus to have around the team. He’s a real plus around his teammates, he’s a great plus around those coaches… We knew full well that if things really went like we want them to go that certainly we need to think about having some [salary cap] room available if we’re going to pay a second receiver at that level.”
