With Dallas Goedert dealing with a knee injury and Grant Calcaterra and Eli Stowers on Injured Reserve, the Eagles are bringing back Zach Ertz five years after trading him to the Cardinals.
The Eagles are signing Ertz to the practice squad, a league source confirmed to NBC Sports Philadelphia’s John Clark. ESPN first reported the news.
Goedert hurt his knee early in the Eagles’ win over the Titans in Nashville on Sunday. Goedert is expected to miss a few weeks and that would have left the Eagles with only blocking specialist Johnny Mundt and deep reserve E.J. Jenkins, who has one career catch.
Ertz, the Eagles’ 2nd-round pick in 2013, spent the last two seasons with the Commanders but became a free agent after last season ended. He’s been rehabbing a torn ACL suffered in Week 14 last year against the Vikings at U.S. Bank Stadium, where eight years earlier he had the game-winning touchdown catch in the Eagles’ Super Bowl LII win over the Patriots.
Ertz ranks fifth in NFL history among tight ends with 825 receptions. His 579 catches as an Eagle are 10 fewer than the franchise-record 589 set by Hall of Famer Harold Carmichael.
The Eagles kept four tight ends on their initial 53-man roster, but Stowers, the rookie 2nd-round pick, went on IR after a disappointing preseason, Mundt has never had more than 19 catches in a season and Jenkins has one career reception for seven yards in 12 games over parts of three seasons.
Ertz is 35 but was having a solid season last year before he got hurt, ranking 10thamong tight ends in catches and yards through Week 14.
His 14 career 100-yard games are 11th-most by a tight end in NFL history.
Last month Howie Roseman said he had been in touch with Ertz but at the time said no deal was imminent.
“First, I’d say what an unbelievable player, what an unbelievable person, tremendous respect for him,” Roseman said. “At the same time, love what we have going in our tight end room, too.
“I would say, have talked to Zach over a period of time, obviously rehabbing his ACL, and (have a good) relationship, just like a lot of our former players who’ve been here.
“But like anything else, wouldn’t get into any conversations about anything other than from a big-picture perspective. In my opinion, one of the greatest tight ends to play the game and just tremendous respect for him, and also excited about the tight ends that we have here.”
Ertz’s 54 career postseason catches are 8th-most ever by a tight end and 3rd-most among active tight ends, behind Travis Kelce and former teammate Dallas Goedert. His nine seasons with 50 catches are 6th-most all-time.
He made two of the biggest plays of the Eagles’ win in Super Bowl LII after the 2017 season. His 1st-down reception from Nick Foles on a 4th-and-1 with the Patriots leading 33-32 with 5 ½ minutes left set up his go-ahead 11-yard TD catch with 2:25 left.
Ertz spent 8 ½ years with the Eagles before getting traded to the Cards in October of 2021. He was in Arizona through the end of the 2023 season, was briefly with the Lions during the 2023 postseason but didn’t play, then spent the last two years in Washington.
When the Eagles traded Ertz five years ago, he said he hoped to return to the Eagles one day and make a run at Harold Carmichael’s franchise record of 589 receptions, 10 more than Ertz.
“This is home,” a tearful Ertz said that day. “I love this place.”
The only tight ends in NFL history with more catches than Ertz are Tony Gonzalez (1,325), Jason Witten (1,228), Travis Kelce (1,080) and Antonio Gates (955).