The idea is right but they need to be careful.
Over the first couple of weeks of the NFL season, the Philadelphia Eagles have gotten some unfortunate news with their tight ends.
Tight end Dallas Goedert left Sunday’s game against the Tennessee Titans in the second quarter due to a knee injury and is said to be having an MRI on that knee this week.
Eli Stowers, who the Eagles drafted in the 2026 NFL Draft, has also been banged up. It’s interesting that Philadelphia is dealing with this when it has one of the better tight end rooms in the NFL when healthy, but this is the unfortunate reality of the situation at the moment.
There are a couple of different ways we can look at what the Eagles should do at the tight end position, but one of them is going out and adding a veteran who understands the system. That guy would be none other than Zach Ertz, though I don’t think it’s as simple as some are making it seem. The Eagles, however, signed him to their practice squad on Monday, per reports.
“Three-time Pro-Bowl tight end Zach Ertz, who played in Philadelphia from 2013-‘21 and helped the team win its first Super Bowl, is returning to the city and signing with the Eagles practice squad, per sources.
“The Eagles lost TE Dallas Goedert to a sprained MCL and now are turning to Ertz, who spent the past two seasons in Washington,” Adam Schefter of ESPN wrote.
Don’t get me wrong, bringing in a guy like Ertz definitely has some value, as he’s proven throughout his career, even in Philadelphia, that he can be a big-time target.
He finished with at least 800 yards in each of his first five seasons with Philadelphia, though those were from 2015 to 2019. Since then, he’s been above average, but he’s also dealt with some injuries, playing in fewer than 13 games in six of the last seven seasons.
That’s the one thing that worries me a good bit.
If he can come in and be productive, there's a lot of value of bringing him in, even if it's to help Stowers.
