Eagles need Dallas Goedert to step up again with Zach Ertz out Week 17

The Philadelphia Eagles will need another strong outing from Dallas Goedert in Week 17 now that Zach Ertz has already been ruled out against the New York Giants.

After Dallas Goedert stepped up in one of the biggest ways possible for the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 16 with Zach Ertz dealing with a rib injury, it looks like the second-year tight end will need to come up big once again on Sunday against the New York Giants.

Despite Ertz eventually returning to action for the second half in the win over the Dallas Cowboys, it was clear the star tight end was playing through a ton of pain.

And if this didn’t seem frustrating enough for the Eagles, Ertz also popped up on the injury report this week dealing with a back injury to go along with the rib, making it seem unlikely that he would be ready to go for Week 17.

Unfortunately, Ertz was officially ruled out for the game against the Giants on Friday afternoon, which is frustrating, but also makes sense since Philadelphia needs to focus on the long-term picture.

Without question, the loss of Ertz just adds to the list of offensive woes this team has already been forced to overcome due to injuries, but at least if last weekend is any indication of what to expect from Goedert, the offense will still be in decent shape.

Luckily for the Eagles, Goedert picked the perfect time to display his best game of 2019 during the Week 16 win over the Cowboys after hauling in nine catches for 91 yards to go along with a touchdown.

Since New York’s defense is nowhere near the same level as the Cowboys, chances are Goedert should be able to post similar numbers, if not better, to put Philadelphia in better position to clinch the NFC East title.

If not, well then the popular topic of discussion over the next few weeks will most likely be how the Ertz injury was just the icing on the cake for a 2019 season that has seen the Eagles deal with all sorts of injuries to key players.

Losing Ertz in such a meaningful game obviously feels devastating after everything Philadelphia has overcome just to be in position to be in the playoff hunt, but at least with Goedert’s surprise play from a week ago, the Eagles should still feel confident in their chances.