Eagles Predicted To Replace $57 Million TE With ‘Freakish’ Big Ten Star
It shouldn’t come as any surprise the Philadelphia Eagles are already thinking about their future at tight end beyond Dallas Goedert.
While Goedert has been one of the NFL’s upper level tight ends for most of the last decade, the Super Bowl champion will turn 31 years old in February and is likely in the twilight of his career.
The Eagles also spent the majority of the offseason — seemingly from the moment they stepped off the field after beating the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans — trying to find trade partners for Goedert.
While no offer the Eagles ever thought was appealing enough to Goedert ever materialized, they did get the veteran to take a pay cut and sign a 1-year, $10 million contract for 2025. That guarantees Philadelphia gets one more year with Goedert as they try to defend their title and also seems to guarantee the Eagles will take a tight end in the 2026 NFL draft.
‘Freak’ Projected To Be First Round Pick in Draft
There are few players in college football right now who can hold a candle to the freakish athleticism of University of Oregon tight end Kenyon Sadiq, a 6-foot-3, 245-pound Idaho native who has become known for eye-popping highlight reel plays.
Not only is Sadiq a touchdown waiting to happen when he get the ball in his hands, he’s also a ferocious blocker.
Sadiq also spent the last 2 seasons as a complementary piece behind a fellow future NFL tight end in Terrance Ferguson, a second round pick pick (No. 46 overall) by the Los Angeles Chargers in the 2025 NFL draft.
In 2024, he had 24 receptions for 308 yards and 2 touchdowns, including a show stopping score against Penn State in the Big Ten Championship Game.
“Sadiq is a versatile athlete who was used at QB on four extra points in ’24; twice threw (2-point conversions) on rollout plays (and he’s also run fake punts from the upback position),” CBS Sports NFL reporter Ryan Wilson wrote on June 3. “As a TE, he runs extremely well, will run through arm tackles and is used all over the formation. He can be a quick-game target as an outside WR and was also used effectively on jet sweeps. He reminds me of Kadarius Toney in the quick game and Anquan Boldin in space with the ball in his hands.”
NFL Draft Projections Bring Sadiq To Philly
Bleacher Report listed tight end as the No. 1 priority for the Eagles in the 2026 NFL draft following Philadelphia’s 24-20 win over the Dallas Cowboys in the regular season opener on September 4, with Sadiq targeted as the best option.
From Bleacher Report on September 6: “It seems like Dallas Goedert’s time in Philadelphia will be coming to an end soon. Goedert turned 30 in January and will be a free agent in the offseason, putting this year’s crop of tight ends on Howie Roseman’s radar … Meanwhile, Sadiq is in line for a big season now that he’s not competing for snaps with Rams’ second-round pick Terrance Ferguson.”
Where Jonathan Kuminga's contract saga with Warriors stands entering September
The ongoing saga between the Warriors and restricted free agent Jonathan Kuminga has persisted past Labor Day. NBA training camp is in four weeks, and the Oct. 1 deadline for Kuminga to accept the qualifying offer is under a month away. So, where are the two sides?
Still miles apart it appears.
The one-year, $7.9 million qualifying offer remains the most attractive offer to Kuminga at the moment, sources continue to tell NBC Sports Bay Area. The Warriors have offered a two-year contract worth roughly $45 million, but are holding strong to a team option for the second year, while Kuminga and his camp have made it clear they want a player option for Year 2.
To ensure Kuminga doesn’t sign the qualifying offer, which essentially would eliminate any option of trading him this season and severely hurt roster building, the Warriors will have to convince him what they’re proposing is that much better than the last resort. The first way to do that is ceding the team option for a player option. The second is simply to give him more money up front, making the team option less of a sticking point in the end.
Year 1 of the Warriors’ offer is $21.75 million, per sources, but because of the base salary compensation rule, Kuminga’s outgoing salary is equal to half of that. So, much of this entire situation comes down to control.
Through four years, Kuminga and the Warriors have yet to find common ground on who he presently is as a player, who he can be with more opportunities and who he will be in the future. The way this offseason has played out only has furthered Kuminga’s desire to control his own destiny and how his future plays out. Kuminga wants to make sure that no matter who his next employer is, he’s comfortable and confident he is being set up for success from the start.
There has been confusion as to why Kuminga would hold steady to the inherent no-trade clause of a qualifying offer, as well as a player option for the second year with the assumption he wants to be somewhere else aside from the Warriors. Kuminga doesn’t want to be used as a “pawn” for a team where he has seen himself as the scapegoat, and he still doesn’t fully know what his role will be going into his fifth NBA season with the likelihood that he still isn’t a starter and might not close games.
With an aging core of Steph Curry, Jimmy Butler and Draymond Green, letting Kuminga sign the qualifying offer would take away the Warriors’ best asset at the NBA trade deadline for another big-time name. Kuminga then would have zero trade value because no team can extend off that. Golden State loses his Bird Rights, Kuminga’s Warriors tenure would be done after this next season without getting anything back for him after spurning multiple trade offers for him in previous years, and the situation would make Kuminga a distraction, at least in a media sense, all season because of the nature of the qualifying offer.
The nightmare scenario the qualifying offer presents digs a far bigger hole for the Warriors than it does for Kuminga.
The main example of the qualifying offer risks for Kuminga is Nerlens Noel. The Dallas Mavericks in the summer of 2017 initially offered Noel a four-year, $70 million contract that he spurned in hopes of signing a maximum contract offer that never came. He then instead signed a $4.1 million qualifying offer with the Mavs, but greatly disappointed in an injury-filled season where Noel only played 30 games and averaged 4.4 points.
Noel signed with the Oklahoma City Thunder the next offseason on a two-year, veteran’s minimum contract.
Here’s the difference: Noel already missed his entire rookie year because of a torn ACL, and missed 31 games the season going into his contract dispute. At the time of turning down $70 million, Noel had averaged 10.0 points and 7.5 rebounds per game while averaging 27.6 minutes. He never was the scoring option Kuminga is and was in a different contractual world than him.
Kuminga doesn’t have a $66 million gap between the contract he’s being offered and the qualifying offer. The gap really is a little more than $13 million when looking at the one-year qualifying offer and the first year of the contract the Warriors currently have on the table. He surely would have insurance policies to lessen the risk, too. The former No. 7 overall pick turns 23 years old on Oct. 6 and is confident his next contract easily will exceed $13 million annually.
The Sacramento Kings and Phoenix Suns both offered Kuminga long-term contracts, empowering him with a starting role and making it known he’d be their power forward of the future. Contracts from the Kings and Suns included a player option, according to sources, but both were dependent on the Warriors agreeing to a sign-and-trade that never enticed their front office enough to do so.
None of the NBA’s four restricted free agents – Kuminga, Josh Giddey, Cam Thomas and Quinten Grimes – have signed a contract yet. The first domino must fall soon. Nothing is close between the Warriors and Kuminga, sources say, with both sides waiting for someone to blink first.
