Grant Calcaterra Knows What he Must do to Earn Playing Time
Grant Calcaterra knows what he must improve upon.
It’s the same thing most tight ends need to work on when they make the jump from college to the league – blocking. Specifically, run blocking.
“With some of the F tight ends that have been more receiving threats in college, that's an adjustment they have to make,” said Nick Sirianni following the Eagles’ blowout loss to the Dolphins in Saturday night’s meaningless preseason finale.
“But they can't be a liability in the run game, right? They have to be able to go in there and execute. Yeah, you limit what you ask them to do and this and that. But, yeah, that's just something we're going to always be working on to get better with him because he doesn't have a lot of experience with it right now.”
The Eagles have done a good job at the tight position of playing it forward.
Brent Celek was there to teach Zach Ertz the nuances of blocking when he arrived from Stanford.
Ertz was there to tutor Goedert when he got to town from South Dakota State.
Now, Goedert is around to do his part and help the Eagles’ sixth-round rookie from SMU.
“I’ve been able to watch, obviously, guys like Dallas block so that’s helped me a lot,” said Calcaterra on Saturday night. “The guys in the room have been talking to me and have been helping me, so it’s been great.”
Calcaterra certainly wasn’t helped by the hamstring injury that prevented him from practicing most of the summer.
Even Sirianni talked about how he is behind.
“It’s always an adjustment,” said Calcaterra, “but I do feel like I have a high football IQ and am able to adjust well. And yeah, we have great coaches here so I always feel prepared in practice and in games, so I feel like I adjusted well.
“It’s definitely been challenging, but you know I feel like with every rep I feel like I’m getting better. (TE) coach (Jason) Michael’s been helping me a ton.”
The good news is Calcaterra doesn’t have to step in and be a savior.
Not with Goedert on board.
Not with Jack Stoll capable of filling the blocking role the way he did a season ago.
Calcaterra is expected to make the team as the third tight end and will likely spend a good portion of the early season on the gameday inactive list while he continues to hone his game.
He played 32 snaps against the Dolphins after practicing against them in the one joint practice the two teams had on Wednesday.
Calcaterra made two catches on four targets for 30 yards. There also may have been a miscommunication between him and QB Reid Sinnett that led to a Miami pick-six touchdown, though Sirianni declined to shed any light on exactly what happened there, saying that he didn’t want to “put it on somebody. We will fix that in the film room.”
Overall, though, the coach said he has been happy with what he has seen so far from Calcaterra in practice, even though he hasn’t practiced much.
Calcaterra’s first catch of the night went for 24 yards. That part of his game is going to be fine. It’s the unheralded part of the tight end's job that needs polish.
“My coach specifically told me they know what I could do in the pass game,” he said. “They obviously want to see what I can do in the run game. I think I did a little bit of everything (Saturday).”
Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Fan Nation Eagles Today and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglesmaven.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.
