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Eagles' Celek becoming known for his selflessness

Brent Celek once seemed destined to be a star tight end, but in Eagles' system, he is recognized for his unselfishness.

Brent Celek might have seen his production numbers drop, but his value to the team has increased.
Brent Celek might have seen his production numbers drop, but his value to the team has increased.Read moreYONG KIM / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

IT WAS MIDNIGHT in the locker room after the sixth game of the season. An Eagles tight end had scored two touchdowns in a shutout of the Giants.

You would have thought Brent Celek scored both. He scored neither.

"Hey, congratulations!" Celek hollered at James Casey, who had a football tucked under his arm - the football he caught for a touchdown that might otherwise have been Celek's.

"See him?" Celek asked, unprovoked, pointing at another teammate. "He made unbelievable catches all night tonight. Absolutely awesome."

Celek pointed at second-year talent Zach Ertz, whose diving, 15-yard snare on the end zone's sideline gave him a new signature play in his short NFL career.

Under different circumstances, that play might have been Celek's, too.

Celek watched last year while new coach Chip Kelly acquired both Ertz and Casey, athletic, fast tight ends, to make those sorts of catches; to make catches that, 5 years ago, Celek expected to make.

He had 32 catches in 2013, his third straight season of diminished production. He has 10 this season. He says he doesn't care whether he has 10 catches or 110.

"I don't really notice. If it happens it happens," Celek said.

He is unusual, but he is believable.

"I think he's awesome," Kelly said. "I love the way he approaches everything. He's got the right demeanor. He's everything you want. He's totally selfless. He's exactly what you want. When you talk about what a Philadelphia Eagle looks like, Brent Celek is what a Philadelphia Eagle looks like."

He is exactly what an Eagle should continue to look like.

The Eagles have fostered a reputation for cutting ties with veterans either owed or seeking lots of money whose production they think will diminish, especially as they approach age 30: Jeremiah Trotter, Hugh Douglas, Tra Thomas; most infamously, Brian Dawkins; most recently, DeSean Jackson and Jason Avant.

Celek, who will be 30 next season, his ninth, is due to earn almost $10 million the next two seasons. None of it is guaranteed. If cut, none will count against the salary cap.

Listen to his coaches and it sounds as if they think he's worth every penny. They're right.

"He's a true pro," offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur said. "If you were going to start a team and draw up characteristics, Brent's the perfect person. He's willing to do whatever he's asked. He'll give you meaningful feedback, because he studies. And he's tough."

Invested. Smart. Tough.

What an Eagle should look like.

Celek has never been to a Pro Bowl, but you get the idea he'd rather have the above accolades than that one.

"Just the fact that people notice that you try to be as selfless as you can . . . 'What an Eagle should look like'?" he pauses and seems to choke up, just a little. "That's the ultimate compliment."

He composes himself, and he sets his jaw, and he blocks out even this moment of recognition.

"I'm satisfied when we're winning," Celek said, "as long as when I'm in there, I'm doing my job, whatever that job may be."

The Eagles enter their bye weekend 5-1, but his job description has changed.

Instability and inexperience at right tackle have limited Celek's availability to be the weapon he was in 2009, the second-best season for any Eagles tight end in receptions, yards and touchdowns.

Five years later, Celek has become a workhorse in a league in which tight ends have become, more and more, players for whom there is no defense. Since Celek's career year in 2009, players such as Rob Gronkowski in New England and Jimmy Graham in New Orleans joined the ranks of Dallas' Jason Witten, San Francisco's Vernon Davis and San Diego's Antonio Gates as X-factors; players who beat linebackers and bully defensive backs.

Five years ago, in the middle of a brilliant third NFL season, Celek was among those ranks. He finished 2009 with a team-high 72 catches for 971 yards and eight touchdowns. On a team that featured wideouts DeSean Jackson and Jeremy Maclin, Celek was the favored receiver for veteran quarterback Donovan McNabb. If, when it's all over, Celek is best remembered for the touchdown he did not score, that's all right by him.

Five years ago, when he signed the 6-year, $33 million contract extension that locked him up through 2016, Celek figured to be known more for what he did do than for what he did not. He grew roots in the city, setting up a restaurant and a clothing line, among other investments, and he planned to be loyal.

Celek understood then that, while his extension was comparable to Witten's, he might be underpaid at the end of the deal.

If you consider his receiving statistics, the opposite might be true.

Behind second-year quarterback Nick Foles and running back LeSean McCoy, the 2013 team set franchise records for points, yards and touchdowns - Celek had six - but he wasn't even the leading receiver among tight ends. Foles, who began the season on the bench, more often found Ertz, a rookie with whom he had developed a rapport while both played on the second unit.

Celek has 75 receiving yards this season. He had three catches in the first four games. That's a pace for 27 catches and 200 yards. He has no touchdowns; that's an easy pace to project.

Celek still can catch and, especially, run. He created a small cadre of worshipers with how he runs after the catches. He says his idol was punishing Steelers running back Jerome "The Bus" Bettis, and, certainly, when Celek sees a defender in his path, he relishes the chance to make like a streetcar. Since the start of the 2009 season only Witten has gained more yards after the catch than Celek.

It is 10 yards Celek forsook that endear him most to Shurmur and Kelly.

Late last season, pushing for a playoff spot, the Eagles led the Lions by 14 with 2 minutes left in the famous Snow Bowl. Foles found Celek on fourth down. Nothing stood between Celek and the end zone and a likely insurmountable, 21-point lead . . . but nothing stood between the Eagles and sure victory if Celek did not score. At the 10, Celek slid to the ground to let the clock run out.

McCoy set the team record with 217 rushing yards that day, but Celek provided perhaps the signature moment of his own career.

"He's the ultimate," Kelly gushed Sunday, near midnight. "You go back to the Detroit game a year ago when we're finishing the game off and he catches the ball in the open field. Instead of running it into the end zone, and then we have a kickoff and our defense has to go back on the field, he hook-slides and gives up an opportunity to get a touchdown, so we can just take a victory and get off the field."

Shurmur said: "He had enough sense to know, 'If I take a knee, I'm not going to expose my teammates to another kickoff and string of offensive plays. If I slide, this crazy game is over.' That's what I'll always remember him for: sliding in the snow."

Remarkable, that. Shurmur was an Eagles assistant in 2008 when Celek set a regular-season team record for tight ends in Seattle with 131 yards . . . as a replacement starter. And when Celek set a team record with 10 catches in a playoff game, plus two touchdowns, in the NFC Championship Game loss at Arizona.

Back then, it appeared Celek would have the sort of career to rival Eagles legends Keith Jackson, Pete Retzlaff and Pete Pihos. Back then, he had the confidence of McNabb and the freedom to roam.

Now, Ertz is a speed phenomenon whose talent the Eagles could not pass up when he fell to them in second round of the 2013 draft. Now, Celek is a punishing run-blocker and, after living on the right hip of inexperienced tackles Todd Herremans, Dennis Kelly and Lane Johnson, he is an excellent complementary pass blocker - with 10 catches, no touchdowns, a big price tag . . . and one legendary, selfless slide in the snow.