Philadelphia Eagles: 5 reasons paying Zach Ertz is 100% the correct move
By David Esser
The future WR room needs Ertz.
After this year’s season, the Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver room is likely going to be looking pretty different. Both DeSean Jackson and Alshon Jeffery are entering the final year of their contract, and both are likely going to be cut due to the team’s tricky cap situation in 2021.
The receiving room will be turned over to the young guns, with guys like Jalen Reagor, Quez Watkins, John Hightower, and Greg Ward expected to take over things for the foreseeable future. While this is undoubtedly an exciting group of players, they still need that #1 target across the middle to eat up double teams.
The Kansas City Chiefs set a pretty solid precedent with how they constructed their offense last year. They surround their TE Kelce with an abundance of speed at the WR position (Tyreek Hill, Sammy Watkins, Mecole Hardman), and it really opened up the field for him. Kelce had a monster 2020 campaign, and it obviously resulted in a Super Bowl trophy for the organization.
The Eagles seem to be employing a similar tactic, as all three of their drafted wideouts this offseason were burners. Hopefully they figured out the WR aspect of things with these young speedsters, but they still need that dominat pass-catching TE.
By trading Ertz or letting him walk, the team is in all honestly taking a few steps backwards with their offense.