The Philadelphia Eagles signed Zach Ertz to the practice squad, and the story getting told is a tight end coming home to finish what he started, Super Bowl ring and all. Fine, sure, it’s sweet. It’s also that the Philadelphia Eagles currently have two healthy tight ends left on the roster, and neither one of them can catch a football for a living.
Goedert’s MCL sprain gutted the Eagles’ tight end room on Sunday, and it happened fast — one catch for four yards before he limped out in the second quarter against Tennessee. Per ESPN, he’s expected to miss “a few weeks,” which in NFL speak means nobody’s actually promising anything. He was having a real season too, 60 catches and 11 touchdowns, so this isn’t some replaceable-level absence.
The feel-good headline skips a detail. Eli Stowers, the second-round rookie, is on injured reserve. So is Grant Calcaterra. Mundt and Jenkins are blocking-only tight ends, and that’s the entire position group this week — ask either one to run a real route and the offense might as well take a delay of game.
So Ertz is walking back into the building where he became a Philly folk hero.
He won a Super Bowl there in 2018, got traded to Arizona in 2021, then spent two seasons in Washington before a torn ACL wiped out the rest of last year and left him out of football entirely until now. NFL.com has the rest of the résumé: 825 career catches, 8,592 yards, 57 touchdowns. Eagles fans are going to make this sound like destiny, and Twitter’s already on it.
https://twitter.com/AdamSchefter/status/2102159517228159025
I hate the Eagles on a good day, and even I’ll admit there’s a real angle buried under the sentiment. Ertz is 11 catches from the franchise receptions record, a mark Harold Carmichael has held since before half this roster was born. A guy who spent an entire year unemployed, chasing a number that old, has something to play for beyond a jersey swap and a group text from his old teammates.
https://twitter.com/NFL/status/2102160794700169711
This isn’t purely cynical, credit where it’s due. Ertz gets a real shot at a record and a roster spot with a contender, which beats what most tight ends get offered after a year on the shelf. But “reunion” shouldn’t do all the work here. The Zach Ertz Eagles reunion in 2026 is happening because the depth chart forced it, not because Philadelphia got sentimental out of nowhere.
For more on how the Eagles’ tight end room shakes out from here, check out the rest of our NFL coverage.
Philly gets its storybook moment. It just needed a torn MCL to write it.
