Though it feels like he just joined the Philadelphia Eagles as a plucky second-round pick out of South Dakota State yesterday, Dallas Goedert has slowly but surely become one of the elder statesmen of the tight end position as he prepares to enter his eighth professional season.
With that longevity comes financial reward and outside accolades, but also respect from one’s peers, with Goedert set to take on a bigger role with Tight End University this summer alongside George Kittle and Travis Kelce.
Discussing what it’s like to become a stalwart of TEU with John McMullen of Sports Illustrated, Goedert noted it’s been great growing with the group as he becomes one of the NFL’s veteran tight ends.
“It’s definitely grown a lot over the years. I’m going into my fifth year [going] and my mindset going to it this year compared to my first year has definitely changed,” Goedert told Philadelphia Eagles on SI.
“My first year, I went there 100% to learn. I remember picking Travis’ brain, asking him a lot of questions. And now that I’m going into Year 8 instead of Year 3, I kind of switched to people asking me the questions, people asking me how I was able to do this. Why my stance is the way it is. So it’s cool to be able to go there and help the younger guys and continue to be able to grow the tight end position.”
For Goedert, though, doing Tight End University isn’t only about learning how to better run block in space, but also befriending his fellow peers, as, being from a small college, he doesn’t have a lot of pre-existing friendships to turn to before and after games.
“Another thing I always enjoy about it is just meeting tight ends on different teams,” Goedert noted. “Being from South Dakota State, there’s not a lot of people that I played with or against in the league. So sometimes I wouldn’t have anybody to talk to after a game, but ever since Tight End University, we have that camaraderie, and I always know somebody on the other team that I can talk to before or after the game.”
Back in Philadelphia after an offseason of question marks, another huge season could do great things for Goedert financially, either with the Eagles or another NFL team. But for now, Goedert is focused on TEU, as it’s become a yearly tradition he looks forward to.
“I think it’s just important to keep growing the position and over the last five years, it seems like the tight ends have been a super important part of the game,” Goedert said, “Especially if you look at the people that go far in the playoffs, it seems like they always have one of the better tight ends.”
