Does Zach Ertz still have the juice to contribute to the Eagles? Here’s what the film — and history — says

The Eagles’ depth at tight end was tested early when Eli Stowers and Grant Calcaterra both landed on the injured list before the season began. Two weeks in, the Eagles now are also down starting tight end Dallas Goedert, who suffered a sprained medial collateral ligament in his right knee during Sunday’s win over the Titans.

An old friend, Zach Ertz, reunited with the Eagles on Monday, signing with the team’s practice squad. Before suffering a season-ending injury last year, Ertz, in his age-35 season, finished with 50 catches for 504 yards and four touchdowns in 13 games for the Washington Commanders.

Ertz has spent the last nine months rehabbing from tearing both the anterior cruciate ligament and lateral collateral ligament in his right knee, and with the Eagles in need of a receiving tight end, the reunion makes sense on paper.

» READ MORE: With tight ends hurt and blockers struggling, the Eagles need Zach Ertz to be more than a good story

But does Ertz, who turns 36 in November, still have the skills to contribute in an offense that needs production from its tight ends? Here’s what his film over the last two years with the Commanders — and NFL history — says about Ertz, who is 11 receptions away from becoming the Eagles’ all-time leader.

For the past 13 seasons, Ertz has thrived on targets over the middle of the field, including his last two seasons with the Commanders. According to Next Gen Stats, 90 of his 116 receptions and 919 of his 1,158 receiving yards over the last two years have come between the numbers.

A route the Eagles are familiar with is his in-breaking route that is somewhere between a slant and dig route, and often mirrors a running back angle route out of the backfield. Ertz sets up the route by widening his route to the outside and sharply cutting upfield at an angle, allowing him to break open vs. both man and zone coverage.

The route was especially effective in the red zone, where he scored all 11 of his receiving touchdowns with Washington. On this specific angle route, he scored five of those touchdowns, including against the Eagles in their Week 11 matchup in 2024.

The big-bodied tight end (6-foot-5, 250 pounds) also thrived on traditional in-breaking routes, where he occupied the middle of the field, finding soft spots in zone coverage.

About a third of his production in Washington came from in-breaking routes: According to Next Gen Stats, Ertz finished with 385 yards on 37 catches on those routes over the last two seasons, including eight of his 11 touchdowns.

Though his speed to stretch the field vertically and athleticism to create after the catch are not what they were when he was last in an Eagles jersey in 2021, there is some route-running savvy he brings to his old team. Specifically, Ertz still showed the ability to break open on corner routes downfield, when matched up with safeties or linebackers.

He uses his size to outmuscle smaller defenders and creates bigger target areas to throw the football. He takes his corner routes a few steps toward the middle of the field and breaks out toward the sideline at a sharp angle to allow the quarterback to throw him open. When he generated big gains over the last two years, they specifically came on those corner routes.

While Ertz still can thrive as a receiver, he does not bring much as a blocker, an area where the Eagles have struggled through two weeks. Much of his time in Washington was spent as a detached slot receiver on run-pass option plays or as a lead blocker on the perimeter for zone-read runs with Jayden Daniels.

He has not had an in-line blocking role for the majority of his career, and that is unlikely to change in this reunion. But with Goedert missing time, Ertz’s contributions as a pass catcher seemed to be what the Eagles are seeking in the franchise legend.

According to StatMuse, which has NFL data that goes back to 1932, only three tight ends eclipsed 500 yards in their aged-36 season: Tony Gonzalez (930), Travis Kelce (851), and Antonio Gates (548). Gonzalez repeated the feat at 37 and 38, Kelce appears on track to do so in 2026 at 37, and Gates failed to reach that marker again over his last two NFL seasons.

If you widen the scope, two other players reached 500 receiving yards after their age-35 seasons, and one of those circumstances relates directly to Ertz. Jason Witten, who finished with more than 500 receiving yards in 2017 at 35 years old (560), retired in 2018, returned to Dallas in 2019 at 37, and finished with 529 yards in 2019. He did not reach 500 yards with Las Vegas in 2020.

The other player in that category was Benjamin Watson, who had a career-best 825 yards at age 35 in 2015 with the Saints, but missed all of 2016. After returning at age 37, Watson finished 2017 with 522 yards on 61 catches, but he did not cross that threshold with the Saints in 2018 or Patriots in 2019.

Injuries in 2022 and 2023 with the Cardinals prevented Ertz from reaching that marker, but Ertz played 17 and 13 games over his last two years, his most games in a two-year span since 2020 with the Eagles and 2021 split between Philly and Arizona.

Gonzalez, Kelce, Gates, Witten, and Watson stayed remarkably healthy, though the latter faced injuries late in his career. With the exception of Kelce, they were two-way players as blockers and receivers. Ertz has missed time with injury in nine of his 13 seasons, suffering season-ending injuries in three of them, and does not offer much in the blocking department beyond doing so in space.

When Goedert has been out of the lineup over the last four seasons, the Eagles have traditionally not relied on the backups for heavy receiving workloads. In 2022, when Goedert missed Weeks 10 through 14 with an injury, Jack Stoll caught seven passes for 74 yards in that time frame, while Calcaterra caught four passes for 41 yards.

In 2023, when Goedert missed Weeks 10 through 12, Stoll had two receptions for 17 yards, and Calcaterra was inactive for two of those three games.

In 2024, when Goedert missed Weeks 6 through 8, then 13 through 16 with injuries, Calcaterra had an increased role, catching 14 passes for 165 yards and one touchdown

And last season, when Goedert missed only one meaningful game, Calcaterra had one catch for 6 yards in a Week 2 game in Kansas City.

This offense under Sean Mannion requires more from tight ends than previous iterations of Eagles offenses, which made Ertz’s signing necessary, though learning the scheme could take time for the 13-year veteran to make a significant impact on the passing game.

Expectations should be set low for Ertz, considering his age and return from a significant injury. But if the tight end can look somewhat like he did as a receiver last season, when he contributed a throwback performance against the Broncos one game before his injury (10 catches, 106 yards) the Eagles may get more than a feel-good story.

Listen to the latest episode

The Eagles survived -- again. This time, instead of holding on for dear life as they did in their opener against Washington, the Eagles came from behind in the final minutes to pull out a gutsy win at Tennessee, with their quarterback leading the way. With the Eagles 2-0, The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Jeff McLane and Mike Sielski examine Jalen Hurts’ promising performance through two games, and dig into the uneven play of the defense. Listen here.

Listen to all episodes here or wherever you get your podcasts.