The 2015 season was tumultuous for the Philadelphia Eagles as they finished 7-9, missed the playoffs, and fired Chip Kelly before their regular season finale against the New York Giants.
There were a lot of negatives on last year’s Eagles team as players such as DeMarco Murray, Kiko Alonso, and Byron Maxwell did not live up to the excitement upon signing. Part of the reason was because of coaching and the other part was a scheme fit.
While those players did not make an impact, tight end Zach Ertz continued to be a consistent presence in the Eagles’ offense. With no Jeremy Maclin and unproven wide receivers, Ertz had a career-year with 75 receptions (112 targets) for 853 receiving yards but only finding the end zone twice for two touchdowns. Despite, catching more passes, the two touchdowns were a career-low for the Stanford product.
With Ertz continuing to grow as of one of the NFL’s best young tight ends, the Eagles’ front office saw this and rewarded him with a five-year, $42.5 contract extension this offseason. Ertz’s contract extension puts him in the same class as Kansas City’s Travis Kelce and Washington’s Jordan Reed. Both tight ends play integral roles in their team’s offenses like Ertz.
After coming off a solid 2015 season, many people expect this upcoming season to be Ertz’s breakout year. But that statement has been reiterated the past couple of seasons, since Ertz’s rookie year in 2013.
As a rookie, Ertz had 36 receptions for 469 receiving yards and four touchdowns. He became a factor in the red zone as he had four receptions for 34 receiving yards and three touchdowns.
It has been well documented that the Eagles had red zone problems, but with the addition of Ertz, it looked like the problem was solved.
However, in the 2014 season, Ertz was not a factor in the red zone, despite having 58 receptions for 702 receiving yards and three touchdowns overall. In the red zone, Ertz was targeted 12 times and had zero touchdowns. Not being able to score in the red zone was a microcosm of the Eagles’ season and Chip Kelly’s offense that year.
Then, looking back at last season, Ertz did not make an impact in the red zone with only nine targets and a touchdown.
Nevertheless, why should this season be any different from the previous three?
The main reason why this season will be different for Ertz is because he has a new head coach in Doug Pederson, who runs the West Coast offense. For many years, we saw how Andy Reid used the tight end in his offense becoming the safety valve for the quarterback. Expect Pederson to do the same with Ertz and Bradford.
As the Chiefs’ offensive coordinator for the past three seasons, Pederson had the chance to coach Travis Kelce and we’ve seen how dominate he has become. Kelce has gone on to have back to back 800 plus receiving yard seasons and be a weapon in the red zone. Also, you cannot forget about new Eagles’ offensive coordinator Frank Reich, who was the offensive coordinator in San Diego and coached both Antonio Gates and Ladarius Green.
With all these resources available to Ertz, it’s not even a question why this season cannot be his breakout year. He has all the talent in the world and is in an offense that uses the tight end as a weapon. If Ertz has a breakout year, it’s only going to help the Eagles going forward with rookie quarterback Carson Wentz waiting in the wings.