With Dallas Goedert dealing with a knee injury, the Eagles signed practice squad tight end C.J. Uzomah to the 53-man roster Wednesday.
Goedert suffered a knee injury in the fourth quarter of the Eagles-Ravens game Sunday in Baltimore and left the game. Head coach Nick Sirianni said Monday he didn’t know yet whether Goedert would be available this weekend when the Eagles face the Panthers.
Uzomah played in the Eagles’ last three games as a practice squad call-up, but he’s out of elevations. He’s played 39 snaps on offense and 13 on special teams against the Commanders, Rams and Ravens without an offensive target.
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"He's a veteran who's just what a great teammate," Sirianni said before practice Wednesday. "As you look back and you kind of talk to the teams that he's been on, as we got him here on this team, everyone says the same thing, what a great teammate. I think you could ask his teammates, particularly in the tight end room and the offense, of what type of guy he is, and they'll say the same thing, great teammate, glue guy, and has done some nice things on special teams and has taken advantage of some of the opportunities that he's had.
"He had a really good play in four-minute (drill) the other day that he came through and led through on a block on a really good player and was able to get movement there. But yeah he just brings veteran reliability and again bringing guys together on the football team and then you know he's had some you know big production where we know if we need to if we can throw him the ball he can he can do something with it and and make plays and then what he does is a blocker."
Goedert has 38 catches for 441 yards and two touchdowns in nine games this year. He missed the Giants, Bengals and Jaguars games with a hamstring injury. He’s missed 18 games since 2020. His 49 receiving yards per game this year is 7th-highest among tight ends. He’s averaged 44 yards per game in his seven-year career, which is 19th-highest among all tight ends with at least 200 catches.
Uzomah, 31, is a 10-year veteran who has 192 catches for 1,881 yards and 16 touchdowns in 109 career games. He spent his first seven seasons with the Bengals, his best seasons coming in 2018 (43-for-439, 3 TDs) and 2021 (49-for-493, 5 TDs). He spent the last two seasons with the Jets.
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Uzomah played college football at Auburn but caught only 29 passes in four seasons.
Other than Goedert and Uzomah, Grant Calcaterra is the only other tight end on the 53-man roster. Calcaterra has 17 catches for 216 yards this year. He had 9-for-93 in three starts when Goedert was out earlier this year.
Another tight end, E.J. Jenkins, is on the practice squad. Jenkins has played in three games this year as a game-day call-up, with 16 snaps on offense and 23 on special teams.
The Eagles filled Uzomah’s spot on the practice squad by re-signing wide receiver Parris Campbell. The Eagles released Campbell from the 53-man roster on Monday.
Campbell, once a 2nd-round pick of the Colts, has six catches for 30 yards in parts of five games and caught a touchdown in the loss to the Bucs. He’s out of game-day elevations so would have to be re-signed to the 53-man roster in order to play again this year.
Campbell is one of eight players to catch TD passes from both Carson Wentz and Jalen Hurts. The others are Alshon Jeffery, Dallas Goedert, Greg Ward, Zach Pascal, DeSean Jackson, Zach Ertz, Jalen Reagor.
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