Where will Zach Ertz be playing this year. Probably not Philadelphia, but it hasn’t thus far pulled a trigger on a trade.
Ertz doesn’t appear to fit into the Eagles’ plans. They’re more excited about emerging Dallas Goedert. And with cap issues, they’d probably like to get Ertz and his $8.5 million salary off their books. Both tight ends are entering the final seasons of their contracts, and reports suggest the team is negotiating with Goedert but not with Ertz.
If the Eagles don’t trade Ertz, they might instead end up simply releasing him. Their preference, though, would logically be to get something in return for him. With training camps and the season inching closer, it’s logical to assume the long-awaited Ertz trade will happen soon.
Report suggest the Bills are the most likely trading partner. They didn’t get much production out of the position last year. Their top returning player at tight end is Dawson Knox, who’s entering his third year.
If we operate under the assumption that Ertz joins the Bills before the start of training camp, I won’t be excited about his potential for the 2021 season.
Ertz is a solid possession target, but I don’t see that as something the Bills are necessarily looking for. They’ve got a bunch of pass catchers – Stefon Diggs, Cole Beasley and Gabriel Davis are coming back, and they signed Emmanuel Sanders. So I wouldn’t think they’d be super interesting in switching gears and throwing a bunch of short passes to Ertz.
The tight end wasn’t a notable part of Buffalo’s offense last year. Only two teams completed fewer passes to tight ends, and only three finished with fewer yards (to the position). Using PPR scoring, the Bills finished with the 5th-worst tight end numbers of the season, and that was despite finishing with top-3 passing numbers overall.
Some of this can be blamed on the Bills not having great tight ends, but I also think the structure of the offense was a factor.
In a 12-team league where everyone’s drafting two tight ends, I would not be looking to select Ertz at this point.
| TEAM TIGHT END STATS | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | No | Yards | TD | PPR |
| Las Vegas | 128 | 1,419 | 13 | 347.9 |
| Kansas City | 118 | 1,515 | 11 | 335.5 |
| Philadelphia | 107 | 1,207 | 7 | 269.7 |
| Miami | 91 | 1,061 | 11 | 263.1 |
| Tennessee | 94 | 967 | 12 | 262.7 |
| Tampa Bay | 87 | 1,092 | 11 | 262.2 |
| Green Bay | 77 | 845 | 16 | 257.5 |
| San Francisco | 96 | 1,146 | 7 | 252.6 |
| Cleveland | 90 | 897 | 9 | 233.7 |
| Denver | 97 | 974 | 6 | 230.4 |
| LA Rams | 89 | 991 | 6 | 224.1 |
| LA Chargers | 81 | 928 | 8 | 221.8 |
| Detroit | 83 | 899 | 8 | 220.9 |
| Indianapolis | 82 | 895 | 8 | 219.5 |
| Chicago | 85 | 744 | 10 | 219.4 |
| Minnesota | 78 | 899 | 7 | 209.9 |
| Baltimore | 73 | 826 | 9 | 209.6 |
| Houston | 75 | 913 | 7 | 208.3 |
| New Orleans | 60 | 721 | 9 | 186.1 |
| Seattle | 75 | 715 | 6 | 182.5 |
| Washington | 75 | 688 | 6 | 179.8 |
| NY Giants | 86 | 812 | 1 | 173.2 |
| Dallas | 75 | 737 | 4 | 172.7 |
| Atlanta | 66 | 659 | 6 | 167.9 |
| Pittsburgh | 71 | 657 | 5 | 166.7 |
| Arizona | 48 | 635 | 7 | 153.5 |
| Jacksonville | 68 | 637 | 2 | 143.7 |
| Buffalo | 42 | 458 | 9 | 141.8 |
| Cincinnati | 53 | 489 | 2 | 113.9 |
| NY Jets | 43 | 409 | 3 | 101.9 |
| Carolina | 27 | 204 | 2 | 59.4 |
| New England | 18 | 254 | 1 | 49.4 |
—Ian Allan