It doesn't look like a great year for the tight end position. Once Rob Gronkowski is gone, you're hoping a transplanted star will pay off or that a youngster will step up. One possibility is Zach Ertz.
This story indicates some nice early chemistry between Sam Bradford and Ertz. And for what it's worth (different offense, different players), over Bradford's last full season worth of games, his tight ends have done pretty well.
Bradford missed all of the 2014 season, and played in only seven games in 2013. But in those seven games and the last nine games of 2012, with Lance Kendricks emerging and then teaming up with Jared Cook, tight ends accounted for a healthy number of catches, yards and touchdowns from Ertz's new quarterback.
Main tight end production in Bradford's last 16 games (Kendricks and then Kendricks and Cook as a tandem) is shown below. The Eagles, it should be noted, will also use a tandem of Ertz and Brent Celek, so it's optimistic to expect Ertz to compile such numbers on his own. But he could be pretty good.
| TIGHT END PRODUCTION, LAST BRADFORD SEASON | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | Year | Week | Rec | Yards | TD |
| Kendricks | 2012 | 9 | 4 | 32 | 0 |
| Kendricks | 2012 | 10 | 3 | 48 | 0 |
| Kendricks | 2012 | 11 | 2 | 14 | 0 |
| Kendricks | 2012 | 12 | 1 | 37 | 1 |
| Kendricks | 2012 | 13 | 3 | 32 | 1 |
| Kendricks | 2012 | 14 | 3 | 36 | 0 |
| Kendricks | 2012 | 15 | 3 | 35 | 1 |
| Kendricks | 2012 | 16 | 4 | 119 | 1 |
| Kendricks | 2012 | 17 | 3 | 33 | 0 |
| Ken/Cook | 2013 | 1 | 10 | 166 | 2 |
| Ken/Cook | 2013 | 2 | 3 | 33 | 0 |
| Ken/Cook | 2013 | 3 | 10 | 80 | 0 |
| Ken/Cook | 2013 | 4 | 5 | 51 | 1 |
| Ken/Cook | 2013 | 5 | 7 | 63 | 1 |
| Ken/Cook | 2013 | 6 | 3 | 47 | 1 |
| Ken/Cook | 2013 | 7 | 6 | 40 | 0 |
| Total | 16 G | 70 | 866 | 9 | |
--Andy Richardson