Zach Ertz is the best close end in the history of the Philadelphia Eagles, a Super Bowl hero, and a fan favorite. Therefore, he will always be a legend in Philadelphia.

However, leaving aside the emotional and emotional attachment, Eltz has no good reason to remain on the Hawks roster in 2021.

Oetz is in the final year of his contract, and he will include $12,721,500 in the 2021 team’s salary cap, accounting for 6.2% of their available expenditure. If the team were to trade or release him, they would save the $8.5 million in salary Ertz owed him this season.

team seem I believe that the $8.5 million cap space is more valuable than retaining Ertz in a possibly uncompetitive season last year-the Eagles have the worst odds of the Super Bowl in the NFC East (+10000), According to Pickswise -Because he has been in the trade zone for about nine months. However, teams in the league have been unwilling to meet any potentially unrealistic prices set by the Eagles for Eltz’s services.

After a season in which Eltz made public his dissatisfaction with the team, followed by a tearful postseason media farewell, he not only (somewhat surprisingly) appeared in the training camp when the players were reported on Tuesday, but he was also a A complete participant was in Wednesday’s practice, which means that the Eagles did not forgive him for the harder part of the practice for trade/protection purposes.

This is a risky choice. If Ertz is moderately injured, his worth will undoubtedly fall further, and serious injuries will burden the Eagles with a salary of $8.5 million.

However, on Wednesday, Howie Rothman was asked if he expected Oetz to appear on the list in 2021, and he stated that he did.

“Yes, I think when you talk about the player here and what kind of player he is, you will think of our young technical position group, and there is a professional bowl player like this on your roster, players can ask them Learning, it’s huge,” he said. “It means a lot to us. I think it’s really exciting to get him here again, and being there today means a lot to the football team we started.”

Of course, if Rothman is still trying to maximize any return for Ertz in the transaction, he has few other options to answer in the affirmative.

Ertz’s 2020 season is pretty bad

In the era of Doug Pedersen-Carson Wentz, Oetz led the Eagles to catch the ball in four of the five years. 2020 is an exception, when he missed 5 games, the number of catches (36), the number of yards (335), the number of yards per catch (9.3), the number of yards per goal (4.7) and TDs (1) were all Set a career low.He also has five drops because The percentage drop is 12.2%, The worst time in his career.

Here are the 10 highest paid close ends in the NFL (Via overthecap.com), and the accompanying statistics for 2020:

As you can see, Ertz’s numbers are lower than the other top earning near-ends on this list, including disappointing numbers.

Ertz was injured physically and he will turn 31 in November. Is this just a bad season? Should I expect Eltz to rebound and become his peak player? Or has his decline already begun?

Although the threshold set in 2020 is low, Ertz should be expected to perform better in 2021, but there are good reasons to believe that his career is at a disadvantage.

There is already a better tight end on the roster

As you undoubtedly know, the Hawks have a legitimate starting close end on the roster, and he may now be TE1-even if Ertz is still on the roster-in Dallas Goedert (26).

Many people would object that Goedert is “better” than Ertz. Of course, to compare with Ertz, Gerdet still has a long way to go. In other words, Goedert’s performance as a receiver in 2020 is significantly better than Ertz:

Yes, Carson Wentz did not perform well last season, and the offensive plan was not attractive, but Ertz had an irrefutable bad season with his own merits.Of course, Ertz’s barrier has improved over the years, but it has never been an advantage, and Goedert has proven to be a high-quality blocking endEven if you think he has something to prove, Goedert is the better close end overall in 2020, and it’s not that close.

As for Rothman’s comment on his teammates being able to learn from Oetz, at this stage of Gerd’s career, he has played behind Oetz for three years. What else can he learn from him? At this point, Ertz’s presence in the team is seen more as a hindrance to Goedert than a benefit.

If the argument is that players in other positions can gain wisdom from Oetz’s experience in the league, there are many other leaders in the locker room who can provide general guidance, such as Jason Kelsey, Brandon Brooks, Ryan Johnson, Fletcher Cox, Brandon Graham and Rodney McLeod, to name a few.

But what about the 2-TE set? Can’t Ertz help Jalen Hurts?

In recent years, the Eagles have used two TE equipment extensively. In fact, they played 12 more people than any other team in the NFL. They are also one of the most explosive offenses in the NFL in the past two seasons, with an average of 6.2 yards per pass attempt in 2020 (No. 31 in the NFL) and an average of 6.6 yards per pass attempt in 2019 (No. 26).

This does not mean that the two TE devices are bad and should never be used. As Nick Sirianni pointed out, as a tool in the offense, having two capable close ends is very useful.

“I think the existence of Zach allows you to do more,” Sirianni said. “You have your 11 things. Now the defense has to prepare for all your 11 things. You have your 21 speed things, and the defense has to prepare because you have these different parts. Then they have to prepare for 12. You might run something similar in each group, but in different formations, different personnel groups, it looks completely different from defense.

“What we always talk about is, if we are at 11, because that is where you might be going, who is better? Who is better on this route? Who is better on this route It’s a mix. It’s always been like this.

“In fact, my team always has two good close ends, and it always blends how you use them and what you use them for. It’s just that you can use 12 people and become dangerous there. Diversity. The difference between the 12 people is because we have two close ends, and the 12 people are different because we have two close ends that can roll. It puts a lot of pressure on the defense.”

Also, yes, Ertz’s appearance on the roster may help young quarterbacks like Hurts. Ertz can still run a good route, he will go where he should go.

All of this is correct, but when your backup close end is the sixth highest paid player in the NFL, the money is spent well elsewhere, again, especially when the team is unlikely to be in 2021. When competing.

Let Eltz show at the beginning of the season that he is still a good player, and then try to trade him before the trade deadline?

Trying to create extra playing time for Ertz may sacrifice young players who may have a long-term future with the team, such as Goedert, or Travis Fulgham.

If the Eagles can find a trading partner for Ertz before the deadline, his value will really be That Much higher than the offseason, and risking injury after you have paid half of his $8.5 million salary this season?

in conclusion

Although Ertz showed up and participated in the camp, he has always been a “good soldier”, but it is clear that he will be happier elsewhere.In my opinion, the savings of $8.5 million that can be dedicated to long-term players during the 2022 offseason are more valuable than the benefits of giving Ertz one more season in 2021, and The Eagles are playing a dangerous game at the risk of getting him injured in training camp.

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