Getty Dan Arnold smiles and points to a teammate on the sideline.
With the trade deadline already passed, the Eagles can only make a limited number of moves at this point in the season. However, there is some speculation that the Eagles could make the jump into free agency late in the season. According to Matt Holder of Bleacher Report, the Eagles should consider signing tight end Dan Arnold.
The 28-year-old journeyman played for the Saints, Cardinals and Jaguars before attending camp with the Eagles this year. He was released at the end of August. He’s particularly intriguing right now because Dallas Goedert went down with a broken right forearm in the third quarter of the Eagles’ game against the Cowboys in Week 9.
In Holder’s article, he says, “In addition to Goedert, Grant Calcaterra is also dealing with a concussion that will really test the Eagles’ strength at tight end.” While the team has Jack Stoll and Albert Okwuegbunam to rely on, it couldn’t hurt bringing in a veteran like Arnold who knows the playbook after spending training camp with the Birds. It could at least serve as an insurance policy in an emergency.”
Arnold had a good chance of getting into the NFL
Coming into the NFL, Arnold was always attractive to teams because of his athletic profile. At 6-foot-3, weighing 220 pounds and running 14 feet 40 yards, it’s tempting to picture Arnold sprinting down the sideline at Lincoln Financial. His 20-yard shuttle and 3-cone drill at the combine also ranked in the top 10% of all tight ends ever to drill at the combine. So what are we missing?
Arnold was a big fish in a small pond in college. He was used extensively at Wisconsin-Platteville and rushed for over a thousand yards in his final season. Still, it’s possible that Arnold never quite made the leap and found consistency with the pros.
In his best year in the NFL, he still managed to catch four touchdowns and accumulate 438 yards through the air for the Arizona Cardinals. He also has a good catch rate for his career at 66%. These stats can’t tell the whole story about a player, but they do suggest that Arnold could be a contributor for the Eagles. He could even be a valuable piece in a playoff run.
Eagles could make history in the next stretch
The next month represents one of the most challenging stretches of the Eagles’ regular season schedule. Head coach Nick Sirianni and his Eagles will need all the firepower they can muster as they face the Super Bowl-winning Chiefs and Andy Reid, the bye, in Week 11. Masters, going into the starting lineup with the Bills in Week 12 and the 49ers in Week 13, and then their divisional rival, the Dallas Cowboys, in Week 14.
The Eagles are off to one of the best starts in franchise history at 8-1, but some experts, including Josh Tolentino of the Philadelphia Inquirer, expect them to lose more in this stretch than they did in the first nine games of the season.
However, if Jalen Hurts can recover from his lingering knee injury during the break week and the team can regroup for that stretch, perhaps with some new signings like Dan Arnold, then fans might have reason to hope that this team can actually do the best season in franchise history.
David Burleson covers the NFL for Heavy.com, with a focus on the Philadelphia Eagles. He lives in Orlando, Florida and covered sports for the West Orlando News before joining Heavy. More about David Burleson
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