Philadelphia Eagles: Target Dallas Goedert until the wheels fall off

The Philadelphia Eagles are playing their best football at the most opportune time.

That’s right, after suffering through a horrible month of October and opting to radically revitalize the team’s offense on the fly, the Eagles are quite literally running wild on opposing defenses with their elite rushing attack and are watching their second-year quarterback rapidly silence his doubters on the fly.

According to FiveThirtyEight, the Eagles have a 38 percent chance of making the playoffs, and they may just be able to clinch the playoffs as soon as Week 17, depending on how things shape up for the Minnesota Vikings.

But for the Philadelphia Eagles to make the playoffs and do some damage if they actually get there, they need to do more than just run the ball early and often. No, they need to throw the ball too, with many of those targets hopefully going to Dallas Goedert.

Goedert has to be the Philadelphia Eagles’ top receiving option down the stretch.

Dallas Goedert is in the middle of the best run of his career.

Over the month of December, which has only featured two games so far, the Philadelphia Eagles’ undisputed TE1 has put up triple-digit yards in both of his starts and even set a new career-high yardage number in Week 15 versus Washington, where he hauled in seven passes for 135 yards.

Oh yeah, and did I mention that Goedert accomplished that feat with a different quarterback in each game? Because he did.

Surely it was the best of times for the pride of South Dakota, and after failing to log a yard in Week 12, it looked like Nick Sirianni had finally embraced the idea of Goedert serving as his team’s top receiving option over even DeVonta Smith, but that doesn’t mean he can take his foot off the gas and expect his tight end to do all of the work. No, if Goedert is going to be the Eagles’ top receiving option, he needs to be treated like he’s their top receiving option and targeted accordingly.

On the season, Goedert is averaging roughly five targets per game, versus 7.5 over the past two games. Unsurprisingly, in games where Goedert was targeted more than average, the Eagles have a 4-1 record versus a 2-3 record in his lighter showings.

Coincidence? Maybe so, but one I’d be willing to roll with regardless.

Now why would the Eagles throw to Goedert more often when historically speaking, wide receivers generate more yardage per catch due to the routes they run? Well, for one thing, Goedert is catching 73.8 percent of the balls thrown his way, which is both the best percentage of any high-usage target on the team and the third time in four seasons where he’s accomplished that feat. Goedert is also averaging 15.2 yards per catch on the year, which ranks third on the team behind JJ Arcega-Whiteside (?) and Quez Watkins, who is still the statistical beneficiary of having the longest catch in the NFL so far this season.

In summation, when quarterbacks throw the ball to Goedert, good things usually happen.

At this point, the Philadelphia Eagles really only have two professional pass catchers in DeVonta Smith and Dallas Goedert. Now granted, that’s two more than they’ve had in more than a few seasons over the past decade – 2016, anyone? – but it’s also a far cry from the more dominant passing offense in the NFL, let alone the NFC East. Still, over the past two games, running a ton with supplemental passes to Smith, Goedert, and occasionally Quez Watkins has worked pretty well and should be the formula for winning games moving forward.