Eagles release tight end Albert Okwuegbunam

The Eagles on Tuesday released veteran tight end Albert Okwuegbunam, who they initially acquired in August of 2023 in a trade with the Broncos.

Okwuegbunam had been on Injured Reserve all year with an abdomen injury. The Eagles opened his 21-day practice window on Oct. 16, and he had been practicing with the team, but they had to decide this week whether to activate him, shut him down for the year or release him.

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Because he wasn’t on the 53-man roster, the move doesn’t open up a spot on the 53-man roster.

Okwuegbunam, 26, was the Broncos’ 4^th-round pick out of Missouri in 2020, and caught 54 passes for 546 yards and four touchdowns in 26 games and seven starts in Denver.

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He played in four games with the Eagles last year with one target and no receptions on 57 snaps.

The Eagles have Dallas Goedert, Grant Calcaterra and Jack Stoll on the active roster. Goedert has missed the last three games with a hamstring injury, and another tight end, E.J. Jenkins, was a game-day practice squad call-up Sunday and played 11 snaps on offense and eight on special teams in the win over the Jaguars.

Jenkins has played in the maximum three games as a practice-squad call-up, so either the Eagles believe Goedert will be ready to return this week or they’re planning to promote their other practice squad tight end, C.J. Uzomah, for Dallas on Sunday. Uzomah has 192 catches for 1,881 yards and 16 touchdowns in 10 seasons, mostly with the Bengals, but hasn’t played since last year with the Jets.