PHLY Philadelphia Eagles Podcast - BREAKING: Zach Ertz Signs Contract To Eagles Practice Squad In Wake Of Dallas Goedert injury

Episode Date: September 21, 2026

The Eagles are reuniting with franchise legend Zach Ertz, signing the veteran tight end to a practice-squad contract in the wake of Dallas Goedert suffering a sprained MCL against the Titans on Sunday. Fran Duffy and EJ Smith discuss the decision to bring Ertz back for his 14th season, what it means for the tight-end room in Sean Mannion's scheme, and Ertz's resumed pursuit of the Eagles' all-time receptions record, currently held by Harold Carmichael. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome in everybody to the P.H.O.I. Eagles podcast, another emergency podcast. We are live from the Xfinity mobile studio and presented by our friends at Xfinity. You know, Fran, just when I thought I was out, just when I thought I could go downstairs, have a little dinner, watch some football. The Eagles drop what, you know, what the soccer community would call a bomb on us. Zach Ertz returning to the Philadelphia Eagles, a reunion that was weeks in the making. I would say they're signing him to the practice squad. And I can tell you my understanding is that he will be available for the Eagles as early as next Monday against the Chicago Bears. So an exciting move, a move that I think a lot of fans will have a lot of juice about.

And honestly, one that they needed. What was your initial reaction when you saw the news come down about 20 minutes ago, Fran? Yeah, I mean, obviously, look, there's an element of the nostalgia, right? This is a true eagle through and through. Like, Zach Gertz, to me, like one of, I would say one of the top eagles. of the last 26 years, potentially. I think when you're looking at the way that Zach Hertz has impacted this organization and, you know, obviously it's made one of the biggest plays in franchise history,

game winning touchdown in the Super Bowl, one of the most productive players in franchise history regardless of position. There's that element of it. So you get like the reunion end. But then you also have what can he do for the here and now? And I do think that he can give them another auxiliary piece in this receiving core, someone that can help out Jalen Hertz, give him another, respectable target.

Some of the teams have to make sure that they credibly recognize. And so I do think that when you're looking at Zach Ertz and the impact he can have, are they done at the tight end room? No, I do think they could stand to make another edition or two. But I do think that he is a player that can step in right now and help them. Yeah, I completely agree. You know, even going into the season, you know, not to give myself a pat on the back here, but three weeks ago, I reported that this was on the table, you know,

that Zerz wanted the move, which I think is an important thing. to talk about, you know, if you are dropping into the show, you know, without having watched a lot of our content, first off, hit the like button, hit the subscribe button. But also, you know, three weeks ago, I reported that Zach Kurtz was pushing for this move. I think that's an important thing to keep in mind here is that he wanted this reunion. He wanted to come back home, you know, to the, to a city that he views as his home in an organization that he holds in high regard. And I also think that the Eagles were always open to this move. I think they wanted to see how things played out in the regular season.

And obviously, things haven't played out great at the tight end room. We just hopped off of an emergency podcast reporting that Dallas Goddard's going to be out for a couple of weeks with a sprained MCL. Obviously, Eli Stowers, the second round pick is on injured reserve. So they didn't, they just had a lot of questions at the position, but even going into the season, even before all that happened, I thought that Zacherts made sense as really what you maybe were hoping Eli Stowers is going to be in year one, which was if Dallas got it missed time, you could trust him to be, you know, the number one guy at the top of the depth chart,

you know, obviously behind Goddard and be able to fill in if Goddard missed time. So I think that's where Earth slots in right away. I agree with you. I think they could probably use more reinforcements at the position. But, you know, it's one of those rare things where the Eagles are sentimental. They love to bring back, you know, former, you know, huge players of them from the past and guys that they have good relationships with. But it also just makes sense from a football perspective.

I don't think there were many options out there that. would have been better than Zacherts. Obviously, the injury is a question. We can talk about that. But yeah, I think that this one just made a lot of sense from a lot of different angles. Yeah, I mean, when you're looking at what the state of the tight end room is right now, the other two tight ends that were active on Sunday or Johnny Munt and E.J. Jenkins. And so you're not going into a game against the Chicago Bears on Monday night football against

a quality NFC opponent and saying, yeah, we feel good about the status of our tight end room right now. So you'd like to be able to go in and have, again, I got a guy. that has been a credible pass catcher, even though, you know, down the stretch here in his career, you know, he's not catching 90, 100 balls like he was five, six years ago, but he could still come in and be a focal point here in this passing game for Jalen Hertz. I do think that that's important. I'll be interested to see the ultimate usage.

Do they start leaning into more like the RPO stuff underneath? I don't know that he's going to be like a vertical player down the scene for them, but I do think that he can give them an option, especially once you get into like the third and shorts, the third in manageable, if this team can figure out a way to get into more of those situations, not have it be third and eight, third and 12. I think that that's certainly an area

where Zach Hertz can now come in and help. Now, there's the blocking end of it as well, where, again, I don't think that Zach's going to come in and give them that presence, but hopefully that's something if you, you know, under, you know, turn over every rack, look behind every tree, turn over every couch cushion. Maybe you find somebody that can come in

and, you know, block for you on duo and, you know, on these bubble screens. Yeah, yeah. I think that they had multiple questions to answer there. For those curious, Zachert's 35 years old, he had a really scary knee injury on December 7th of last season. And one of the reasons that I

heard was behind Zacharts not signing with the team in the lead-up to the season was probably twofold first and foremost, like the nine-month mark from that injury, which was September 8th. But also realistically, like, you know, I didn't hear this directly, but I think logic would

stand that signing him at this point means that his contract is non-guarantee. So, you know, I think that that would have also been something on the Eagles radar. But again, I just, I just keep going back to the fit. You know, another thing I heard that's an off the field thing, more of an intangible thing, is that him and Eli Stowers already have a decent relationship. You know, there's a mentorship aspect. But I just, I hope you don't mind me bringing this on air, Fran.

You've said something I really enjoy about Zach Hertz and kind of his path through his career where he's had like young tight ends that have tried to push him out. And just how he is like the professionalism that he has, basically meaning like he's always been able to hold young guys off just because he kind of does so many things that coaches want a tight end to do on the field. Yeah, I mean, there was there was a point in time where he was the best route runner in football, not the best route running tight end in football, the best route runner in football, right? And that skill doesn't necessarily just like go away. That is something that, yeah, like once the athleticism starts to fall off, there are there are tears to everything, right? So he's not going to

separate the way that he did in February 2018. But I think that when you're looking at the what Zacherts can bring to the table on the field, we talked about that. but then off the field they're like yeah helping out a guy like Eli Stowers who is still trying to like find his way right you know because it's when you're talking about Stowers and I think a lot of people look at the struggles that he had this summer and say like oh like it's just as a blocker no like that was a big issue and that will continue likely to be an issue but what can you do like as a receiver it's not about just being an athlete and testing well and jumping high uh you know at the combine like how do you leverage that athleticism how do you bring that to the forefront you know

how do you create separation how do you attack leverage how do you do you find blind spots? How do you, you know, make yourself available for the quarterback? And so I think those are all things that Zach will hopefully be able to partake, you know, or share, I should say, you know, with with a guy like Eli Stowers. Yeah, yeah. It's also just fun from a fans perspective. It's fun that he's, I think it's 10 receptions away from the all-time lead in receptions in franchise history. He's behind Harold Carmichael. And I remember, I remember sitting on Zoom, you know, and watching Zach Ertz, you know, give like a tearful goodbye to Eagles fans. and talk about how, you know, maybe one day he would come back and get the record.

And obviously he's going to get a chance here to do that now. And honestly, I think he gets it. You know, we don't know what he looks like health-wise, but I think he gets it. I think you'll have the opportunity to, you know, even when this team goes 12 personnel, I could see him being out there for some of those snaps, even when Dallas got it's back. I think that I think Zach Kurtz is going to have the franchise record soon enough. And I can tell you, like, you know who's happy for that? Like, like, Halif Carmichael's happy for that.

You know, like, I can know, like just, you know, being around Harold for the time that I was with the organization that, you know, like, that that's a guy who roots for players, right? Like, you know, that's not something like, oh, like, this is a cheap way to, like, get my record. Like, there's not going to be those kinds of feelings. You know, and Zach is a guy that everybody in that building reveres, right? Like, they love that guy. So it's not a surprise that they got to this point. Yeah. Yeah.

You kind of got into it a little bit. But do you think that this is as simple as you can just kind of keep the playbook that you have and put Zach Gertz in there. Obviously, like, you're not going to have him as quite as multiple as Dallas got it, or do you think that this is the type of thing where they're going to have to figure out a use case for him? I think they will probably have to cater some things to him. Like, look, you're not worried about him coming in and being able to pick up the playbook, right? So, like, I think you're going to bring him in and he's going to figure all that stuff out if he hasn't already gotten a jumpstart on it. I don't think that that's going to be an issue.

But just finding ways to, like, use him. I think that that will be interesting. Like I said, I wonder if they'll start to encourt. We've seen them use more RPO's. That was something that starts to be last week against Washington. It's like, all right, maybe a little bit more RPO than I anticipated. So, you know, that's something I'll be tracking for sure. Yeah, I just, I can envision him work in the middle of the field, finding soft spots in zone coverages. And like, I think that the Jalen trusts him element is a little bit less important than it would have been in years past based off the fact that through three weeks at least,

Jalen has been sort of more like equal opportunity. with his receiving targets. But I think the fact that Jalen and him obviously, like, know each other is going to matter as he tries to onboard in this system on the fly. And I mean, I guess he does he have experience in like similar schemes? I can't think of an example, actually. No, I mean, Arizona, not really. It's like, you know, and with petting, it's a similar cloth, but not the same.

It's not going to be the same nomenclature. It's not the same verbage. Yeah. And in Washington, it was different as well. So, yeah, it's different. But I don't anticipate. that being an issue. I am interested to hear the first question lobbied at Nick Siriani on Wednesday,

just after their last interaction. Yeah, I mean. Obviously, they're past that, but it's just funny. Yeah, but that is an interesting wrinkle here. Yeah, it was funny when I wrote the story a couple weeks ago, people were mad at me for using a picture of him in a commander's, like in commanders colors, not even the jersey. But yeah, I think it's a very fitting thing for him to, presumably. like see out his career with the Eagles here.

We'll see, you know, if he plays more than one more season. But, you know, I think some people might ask about the practice squad thing. Eagles have done this with veteran players. And honestly, signing him to the practice squad leaves a roster spot open for them, too. I didn't even think about this until right now. Like, you know, this could mean that they have another move coming. But you generally speaking, I think they like the flexibility of bringing the guy on through the practice squad and elevating them on game day.

And then, you know, that gives Zacherts a week if he needs it. you know again i've been told he won't need it but you know if he needs a week to onboard he can have that week to kind of just get himself acclimated if you were to go and get a player like a jack stole you would need to bring him to the active roster because he's on another team's practice squad that would be signing signing zack urts and jack stole the same week was is like the ultimate like is like the peak of like no new ideas but uh if that's around they wanted to go and bringing a guy off another team's practice squad you need to use an active roster spot on the 53 to get that player yeah you know it's just really good cohab there friend you know just the

cohabitation matrix. It's like, you know, we know these guys. You know, when you're bringing people in midseason, you want to know them. Look, I don't want to like make fun. That's important. It makes sense. It would be very funny if that was like the answer. It's like, all systems go.

We're good to go here. See what's Tyree Jackson. What's Richard Rogers up to? Let's get the whole group back together. Can we call him by his real nickname? I guess it's not, it's not overtime. Yeah, you know, it's called Dickrott up. Probably digger out in the in people's phone.

I mean, it's his nickname. He chose it. We have a super chat from our Verma 30. He says, under or over 350 yards. I'm assuming that's receiving yards. I'm taking the other. I mean, that's pretty passing yards. But let's reset.

Let's reset the over under here. Let's let's think about a fun over under for Zachards. Like 350's probably that's three 50's too high. Yeah. I mean. If we're being realistic about it. Yeah. Like is 200 appropriate?

150? It does depend on how many weeks we're talking for Goddard. Now, if you were saying that they're not sure if they're going to put them on injury, that would mean that they think it could be a three-week injury. And if it's a three-week injury, I don't know that there's enough passes to go around for him to break even 200. Like, that's probably a little rich. Yeah.

But to me, it is more like over under catches. And I would set that at like 11.5. 11 and a half catches. If he needs 10 for the rest of, I'm going to say he'd get like I'm going to put it up 10. Yeah. I don't think it's going to go too much higher than that. Yeah.

I'm looking. So grand calcutera last year who or no, I guess 2024 would be the better example because he filled in for Dallas Goddard. Okay. 24 catches, 298 yards. And there are a bunch of vertical plays in there. Yeah. I would probably put the over under at 125.

Yeah. I'll put the catches at 15. I think he gets it. I think he gets it. I think he does get it. I would like, I'll put 65 turkeys that he. gets it. Yeah. Yeah. All right. What else, what else about Zach Kurtz is on your mind here, Fran? I think it's just the, the fact that,

and this is for all of our viewers and all the others, it's like, it's the same way when they brought back BG last year. It's cool to kind of, it's okay, because I know there's going to be a lot of people that are like negative about this, where it's like, oh, you know, like, oh, you know, like, what are they doing? This guy's wash. It's cool to bring this guy back into the fold. They're not putting too much on them. Like, I get it. You know, you're, you're, you're down bad because you had a knee with the position and Dallas is hurt. Going with fine expectations.

It's cool to bring a guy like Zach Hertz back into the fold. Yeah, I totally agree. We're not sitting here telling you that this fixes the Eagles offense. We're not telling you that this is the only move that they needed to make a tight end. But I think this one made a lot of sense, maybe in conjunction with another one. We have a super chat from the dink man. But before I get to that, Fran, you know, the tight end depth chart of your favorite team might change. But the price of your internet should never do that.

So check out the five-year price guarantee from our friends at Xfinity. All right. Let's hear from the dink man. Dinkleberg checking in. It says, been in and out of sleep over the last 24 hours worse than a fever. Oh, Dinkleberg.

What you best believe I'll be watching Sunday night football for the gush. Hate that I miss the moment. Oh, he didn't see the game. Oh, that's terrible. Oh, man. Well, I hope you feel better soon, Dinkleberg. This reminds me I got to get some emergency when I get off of the pot. I was next to a guy, you know, I put my headphones on no transparent at the end of the flight.

I hear him sniffling. And I'm like, I've been just sitting here breathing your air for hours. So hope you feel better, Dinkman. Congratulations on, I mean, just you got to take a whiff after the gushest performance on Sunday night football. See, the other thing, we've never, I don't know if we've talked about this. You got to hydrate for these flights, E. Because that's when your body is most, you are, you are most susceptible to coming down with something when you are up in the air. So if you're not hydrated for those

Don't worry, Frank Those sniffles from somebody next to you I'll get you as a as the kids say I keep that thing on me I always have my bottle with never heard a kid say that I mean I guess kids don't say it young people say it But yeah I agree like I don't want to understate or you know as a reporter Sometimes you get caught up in like the news of it but you know it's funny like when I wrote the headline for this video I at first I wrote like Eagle Sign veteran tight end Zach Ertz it's like no

Eagle sign like franchise legend Zachers yeah like absolutely one of the greatest players in franchise history and honestly one of the most like high high like one of the highest approval rating players i would also say um and honestly and it's what it's what's cool about it is that it was not always that way similar to bg like he was very much like you know like in the line of fire for eagles fans and for local media like for early stages of his career like you remember like the vontes perfect play where uh you know the people question like his toughness and stuff like that and like to see him bounce back the way that he did from that and fight through that and just kind of put his head down and say like yeah like all right I'm never going to be like the glass eater but I'm going to give maximum effort at all times and then come through in the clutch the way that he did I think it's a it's a great Philadelphia sports story yeah but say he just has such a great story and it's fun that there's going to be another chapter written as a somebody covering the team that's exciting um all right Fran again let's say that somebody dropped in 10 minutes into the podcast here maybe they've never heard of Zach hurts maybe they're a new Eagles fan And if that is you, make sure you like the video.

Make sure you hit subscribe. Comment down below how you feel about Zacherts coming back. But again, I'm going to clear it out for you, Fran. What are your thoughts about the signing? Well, the Eagles have signed franchise legend Zacherts to the practice squad. He's going to join the 2026 Eagles. And he's just 10 catches away from the all-time record here in Philadelphia for receptions. But I think this is a guy that can come in and give them an impact right away.

I do think that he can come in, give Jalen Hertz a suitable, complimentary piece in the passing game when you've got E.J. Jenkins and Johnny Munt as the only other two tight ends on the active roster after Dallas Doddard's injury. Goddard, by the way, earlier tonight, not put on injured reserve, but with a sprained MCL is going to miss a few weeks. And so time will tell if they're going to put him on IR. Now you go in, the urgency is there to bring in a guy like Zach Kurz. I do think that he can find a way to impact this Eagles passing game. So it could happen as early as Monday night against the Chicago Bears. We'll see how that plays out over the next few days, but exciting to have a franchise legend back in Midnight Green.

Absolutely. Kelly Green, too. Everyone's around as well. If only they just kept Camelot, too, on the roster, this tight end room would be perfect right now. Anyway, that's going to do it for us at the PHOI Eagles podcast. Thank you to Fran, obviously. Join in double emergency podcast duty.

Hat tip to you, my friend. Shout out to Lindsay, working behind the scenes. I mean, man, like the graphic. You see the graphics you drop mid-show? If you didn't drop, If you didn't hit the like button already, hit the like button for Lindsay working like just so much. I'm about to say, Julia's showing up in the clutch for us. So yeah, hit the like button.

Comment down below what you think of the signing. Comment maybe who's 86 right now before we get out of here. Somebody's wearing it. So who's going to who's going to be that's a lucrative move for somebody. Somebody's about to make some money. Who's wearing it? No one's eight wearing 86 right now. Oh, I think that somebody was on the practice squad.

Oh no. Did they hold on? I've almost, nobody on the, Xavier Gibson is wearing up for 86. All right. Xavier Gibson, congratulations. You just made yourself some money because that's tomorrow. It's going to be a, what's it going to take to get that number back? By the way, if you have not watched the Monday afternoon version of the show,

watch all the way through, watch all the film and else, everything we get through, watch all the way over to overtime. find out who EJ saw with two hot dogs in the press box. Watch the show from Monday all the way through, so you get the full story from Nashville. The double dog. All right. On that note, comment Xavier Gibson,

if you've made it this far in the show and congratulate him on the check that Zach Ertz is about the right for him. That's going to do it for us. Thank you to all the, to the production staff and to you, Fran. We will be back. If there's no more breaking news, we'll be back to at 2 p.m. tomorrow to really, you know, unpack all this. I'll be joined by Bowulf then. So, you know, that's going to do it for us.

And as always, we love you.