Philadelphia Eagles: Draft Dallas Goedert in fantasy football, folks

Who is the Philadelphia Eagles‘ best pass catcher?

Is it DeVonta Smith, the 10th overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft who set a franchise rookie record thanks to his 916 yards over a 17-game debut campaign in midnight green? Or how about A.J. Brown, the former Tennessee Titans second-round pick who was handed a $100 million extension by Howie Roseman?

What if it’s neither? What if it’s instead Dallas Goedert, the Birds’ 2018 second-round pick out of South Dakota who caught 56 passes for 830 yards and four touchdowns during his breakout campaign for the Eagles? I know he didn’t make it to the Pro Bowl, but goodness, his stats sure are impressive.

If you play fantasy football, all three are more than viable options, as, like Jalen Hurts, who was in Matthew Berry’s top-5 fantasy football QBs, they should all put up numbers in one of the most deceptively exciting offenses in the NFL. But Dallas Godert specifically may be the most compelling option of the three, as the Philadelphia Eagles’ TE1 may find himself overlooked for flashier names despite being the “answer” route in many of Nick Sirianni’s called plays.

Overlooking Dallas Goedert is a mistake, Philadelphia Eagles fans.

If you’re a regular user of Twitter.com, you need to follow Honest NFL, a Section 215 mutual and one of the smartest minds in the game.

A self-proclaimed two-time former scout who worked for the Philadelphia Eagles during the Doug Pederson era – his anonymity shtick makes the exact details a bit murky – Mr. NFL is constantly dropping valuable nuggets of information free of charge for his tens of thousands of followers, and even foreshadowed the team’s interest in Jordan Davis months his former boss traded to draft him 13th overall.

One of today’s lessons was about Goedert’s usage in Nick Sirianni’s offense and how his status as the offense’s safety blanket – called “answer” here – should make him a fantasy football stud.

Makes sense, right? According to PFF, Goedert lined up inline on 544 of his 781 offensive snaps in 2021, or roughly 69.6 percent of the time. While he did attack opposing defenses down the field on vertical routes, especially against the Kansas City Cheifs, the Las Vegas Raiders, and the New York Jets, the bulk of Goedert’s catches come within 10 yards of the line of scrimmage, many of which were on short or intermediate routes going across or away from the formation.

When his primary outside target was covered, and his feet started to get happy in the pocket, Goedert would rapidly become Hurts’ go-to target as he scrambled around behind the line of scrimmage looking to make something out of nothing. The duo – plus Gardner Minshew in Week 13 – connected on passes thrown Goedert’s way 73.7 percent of the time, and over the 15 games he appeared in, only one featured catch percentage less than 50 percent, which, considering he had exactly zero yards in Week 12, isn’t too surprising.

In the NFL, big plays are undoubtedly important, but in fantasy football, especially in PPR Leagues, producing the same number of yards on chunk plays can be even more valuable, especially when you throw in a touchdown or two for good measure.

There’s no doubt about it; Dallas Goedert is a very good player. He can block versus the pass, move bodies in the run game, and attack the entirety of the field as a pass-catcher. While the presence of DeVonta Smith and A.J. Brown will certainly draw serious attention on the outside, and players like Zach Pascal and Quez Watkins will do their respective things from the slot, don’t be surprised if it’s Goedert who routinely ranks first on the Philadelphia Eagles in catches, targets, and yards. In the words of Honest NFL, “I’ve never played fantasy football, but he would be high on my list.”