Zach Ertz Makes Pitiful Effort

What is Zach Ertz doing? His average salary is the 6th highest among all tight ends in the NFL. There situations throughout the game, such as an early 2nd & 7 versus the Bengals, where he isn’t even on the field. He ranks 18th in receiving yards among tight ends. He ranks 21st in touchdowns among tight ends with 2.

You know who has more receiving yards and touchdowns WHILE PLAYING BEHIND Washington’s Jordon Reed? Vernon Davis.

Ertz might be the 4th best tight end (Witten, Reed, Davis) in the four team NFC East.

And this is the block he throws on Vontaze Burfict??? Thanks to Kyle over at Crossing Broad for the visual.

Apparently there is an “I” in team when Ertz spells it. There is no excuse for not putting a body on Burfict. Just clip his shoulder to knock him slightly off-balance. That’s his teammate. That’s his quarterback! Even this guy would’ve done more than the olé that Ertz did.

People defended Ertz on twitter stating that Ertz would’ve been penalized for a blindside hit. That’s erroneous. That rule applies only to blocks coming from behind or the side who lays a block and leads with their forearm or helmet. ERTZ was in front of Burfict.

Ertz should be flourishing in this system. Travis Kelce does. He’s always in the top 10 in receiving yards under Any Reid in Kansas City. Ertz isn’t close to the top 10.

Ertz defenders point out that Ertz has been among tight end leaders in the past few weeks. Yeah, the games where the Eagles are on a terrible skid. There’s no denying a good chunk of the yards he does have came late in games where the Eagles were behind and the defenses were sitting back in soft prevent-like packages.

Even Paul Turner put up 80 yards in garbage time work. It’s so painfully obvious that the “garbage time” moniker has a life of its own on twitter.

https://twitter.com/groth1020/status/805520080767488000

https://twitter.com/PinnerPaul/status/805518003152551936

https://twitter.com/RobHodge/status/805505399252254724

Ertz is 10 in the NFL in targets among tight ends, but still only 18th in yards and 21st in TD’s.

Seems like Ertz might be smelling himself a bit. He’s got the big contract and hot U.S. soccer player girlfriend/fiance, who shows up at training camp and carries his helmet??!!

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The getting-out-of-the-way of that block is inexcusable. His teammates need to call him out. Something tells me if Ertz did that under Belichick he’d be MIA next week. We’ve seen Belichick bench his leading rushers for far less of a lack of effort.

If Nelson Agholor is deactivated because he needs to get his head right, then maybe Zach Ertz needs to be deactivated to get some stones, think about his teammates, and stop taking playing in the NFL for granted. Trey Burton outplayed him anyway while the game was competitive…AND he blocks.