{"id":177135,"date":"2026-04-16T08:17:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T08:17:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=177135"},"modified":"2026-04-16T08:17:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T08:17:11","slug":"%f0%9f%a6%85-great-news-after-arriving-in-philadelphia-and-holding-a-3-hour-meeting-with-howie-roseman-zach-ertz-has-spoken-about-his-decision-regarding-a-potential-return-to-the-philadelphia-eagles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=177135","title":{"rendered":"\ud83e\udd85 GREAT NEWS: After arriving in Philadelphia and holding a 3-hour meeting with Howie Roseman, Zach Ertz has spoken about his decision regarding a potential return to the Philadelphia Eagles for the 2026 season. \ud83d\udc40"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Should<\/p>\n

CHANDLER, Ariz. \u2014 Zach Ertz had the same thought as many who watched him suffer a gruesome knee injury in December.<\/p>\n

Is this it?<\/em><\/p>\n

The veteran Eagles tight end knew at the very least that his season was over as he lay on the turf at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minnesota \u2014 once the setting of his greatest triumph in football with the Eagles.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt hurts my soul,\u201d Ertz said, nearly four months later, recalling the moment. \u201cI wasn\u2019t in pain. It was more like shock. I didn\u2019t feel pain when I got hit. I didn\u2019t feel pain when I was laying down. I just knew something was wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

And he knew, at age 35 and just three years removed from a season-ending injury to his other knee, that his career might be over. Ertz\u2019s thoughts as he was carted off the field in Minnesota \u2014 sobbing with his head under a towel \u2014 could be summed up in the words spoken by narrator Liev Schreiber in the\u00a0Hard Knocks<\/em> episode that aired a few days later:<\/p>\n

It\u2019s every player\u2019s worst fear: an injury that might end a career. A steep price to pay for the game you love.<\/em><\/p>\n

The MRI the next day didn\u2019t offer much solace. The ACL and lateral collateral ligament in Ertz\u2019s right knee were torn, as was his hamstring. It was believed that he also sustained cartilage and meniscus damage. His doctors wouldn\u2019t know the full extent of the injury, though, until surgery.<\/p>\n

For Ertz and his family, it was a week fraught with emotion and uncertainty. His three young sons didn\u2019t fully understand the gravity of the situation, but the eldest, 3-year-old Madden, knew his dad was hurt.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s like, \u2018Dad, so when\u2019s the next game? When are you gonna play next?\u2019\u201d Ertz said. \u201cI\u2019m like, \u2018Bro, I\u2019m not gonna play for a while.\u2019 And it\u2019s just like tears running down my face.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ertz didn\u2019t want to go out this way, especially considering how well he had performed for the Commanders the past two seasons. He just needed a flicker of hope. It came the following Monday after his knee was reconstructed: The cartilage and meniscus weren\u2019t damaged after all.<\/p>\n

If he was willing to put in the effort \u2014 and few who knew his legendary work ethic doubted he would \u2014 Ertz could return to full strength in about nine months. A 14th NFL season isn\u2019t guaranteed. He is a free agent and may not be 100% by September.<\/p>\n

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But Ertz, who invited The Inquirer along for a recent therapy and training session, said he\u2019s already ahead of the pace of his first ACL rehabilitation before the 2023 season. And that injury occurred two weeks earlier in the season. He is driven by many factors, but he doesn\u2019t want the grisly bending of his knee to be a lasting image.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want it to be the last play that I have,\u201d Ertz said on March 31. \u201cEven talking to people now, and they do it out of the goodness of their heart, and [they say], \u2018Man, that injury was tough.\u2019 When people think of my career and that last play, I don\u2019t want that to be the conversation starter.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd so, for me, it\u2019s just doing everything I can to get back to my best because I felt like I was playing really good football before I got hurt.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Commanders haven\u2019t ruled out bringing him back. Two weeks ago, Ertz met with Washington coach Dan Quinn at the nearby Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix during the NFL meetings. A day later, he returned to see Eagles general manager\u00a0Howie Roseman<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Eagles aren\u2019t in the market for a starting-caliber tight end. They re-signed\u00a0Dallas Goedert<\/a>\u00a0last month and are likely to further address the position in the draft later this month. But stranger things have happened. Eagles owner\u00a0Jeffrey Lurie<\/a>\u00a0acknowledged as much.<\/p>\n

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\u201cMaybe he\u2019ll go back to Washington. We don\u2019t know. You never know,\u201d Lurie said to The Inquirer during the league meetings. \u201cWe brought back\u00a0Brandon Graham<\/a>. So you never know.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Ertz said he would love to end his career where it started and have a chance at the Eagles receptions record that he\u2019s 11 shy from breaking. He said he wants to retire in midnight green either way. Lurie said he would welcome the symbolic gesture, as he has for other franchise greats who left the team.<\/p>\n

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Time heals. Ertz said he no longer has a chip on his shoulder about the contract dispute that eventually led to the Eagles trading him to the Cardinals in October 2021. He matured into a man in Philadelphia, but he said fatherhood has changed the way he views his past, and how he relates to others now.<\/p>\n

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Ertz said he isn\u2019t as singularly focused on himself. It was that compulsion, however, that helped make him a Philly fan favorite, even if some believed his demands led to his exit.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there\u2019s a little misconception that I wanted to leave,\u201d Ertz said. \u201cI never wanted to leave. I know some fans think, \u2018Oh, Zach wanted to leave.\u2019 I said 1,000 times to Howie I did not want to leave.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s just the nature of the business. They drafted a kid [Goedert] in the second round that was a good player, who they thought was better long term than I was gonna be.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Eyes wide open<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n

Nearly five years later, Ertz doesn\u2019t appear much different on the surface. He\u2019s got some gray hairs sprinkled along the edges of his beard. And there were visible scars from two knee operations as he sat upright on a treatment table at AMDG Sports Performance Training Center just south of Phoenix.<\/p>\n

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As \u201cK2,\u201d his physical therapist, massaged his right knee, Ertz talked about the other knee rehab. An infection and the need to replace an anchor forced doctors to go back in three offseasons ago, which complicated his recovery.<\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t want to hear about a delay back then. He set Week 1 as his goal with a new Cardinals coaching staff \u2014 led by former Eagles defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon \u2014 set to take over.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIn hindsight, I probably should have waited a few more weeks,\u201d Ertz said. \u201cWhereas this one I\u2019m just focused on the day to day. And whenever I\u2019m back to myself, I\u2019ll be honest and have people around me that can be honest with me.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Ertz still has an ideal timeline. He wants to be in training camp long enough to be ready by Week 1. But he conceded that he might have to spend a few weeks on a prospective team\u2019s physically unable to perform list before playing.<\/p>\n

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He said he\u2019s not putting additional pressure on himself to return early, although he said having gone through the process before has prepared him for molasses-like improvement. K2, who also handled Ertz\u2019s therapy the first time around, eventually flipped his patient onto his stomach and worked the range of motion in his knee.<\/p>\n

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\u201cTook a while to get there,\u201d K2 said, \u201cbut we got it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Said Ertz about the rehab: \u201cThe first time you go through it it\u2019s like, \u2018Man, is this ever gonna get better?\u2019 This one is, \u2018I know it\u2019s gonna get better.\u2019 It\u2019s just a matter of how long does it take to get better?\u201d<\/p>\n

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Not being under contract has given him a freedom of sorts. He doesn\u2019t have to be at a team facility when spring workouts start this month. He can stay home in Arizona with his family and close to his medical team.<\/p>\n

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But Ertz will likely have to carve out a role wherever he signs and earn whatever comes his way.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going in with eyes wide open,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m not going in with a lot of expectation. If I was a team I probably wouldn\u2019t expect me, based on the injury, based on my age \u2014 \u2018Hey, this is our Week 1 starter.\u2019 But I do think if I can get back to myself that I\u2019m still that same guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ertz was on pace to have roughly the same receiving numbers in 2025 that he\u2019d posted the year before, even though the Commanders were often without starting quarterback Jayden Daniels. Ertz had 50 catches for 504 yards in 13 games and caught 10 passes for 106 yards against the Broncos in his last full game.<\/p>\n

Washington had lost seven straight and was out of the playoff hunt ahead of a Week 14 matchup at the Vikings, but Daniels was returning from injury. Ertz had played in Minnesota twice since winning\u00a0Super Bowl<\/a>\u00a0LII in February 2018. Coincidentally, former Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz was playing for the Vikings this time around.<\/p>\n

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The former teammates remain close and went to dinner the night before, Ertz said, but the injured Wentz wasn\u2019t in attendance at the game. Early in the third quarter, Ertz caught an 11-yard pass on fourth-and-1 \u2014 not far from where he converted from the same down and distance ahead of his game-winning touchdown in the Super Bowl.<\/p>\n

Two drives later, he went up for a pass and was undercut by safety Jay Ward. Ertz\u2019s knee hyperextended to a point where the broadcasters warned viewers before showing the replay. He knew the injury was bad, but he didn\u2019t know how bad it looked until he saw the video.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I first got hurt, I was like, \u2018Man, is this it?\u2019\u201d Ertz said. \u201cIt was such a violent injury, the abruptness of the season being over. \u2026 The video is nasty. I\u2019ve seen it plenty of times. Once is enough and I\u2019ve seen it more than once.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The same emotions<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n

His wife, Julie, watched the game with Madden and 1-year-old twins Kace and Kyren from the Ertzes\u2019 in-season home in the D.C. area. She was waiting for Zach when the Commanders\u2019 charter landed at Dulles International Airport later that night.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the tight ends were there helping me off the plane, and the coaches were helping me, and Julie\u2019s there to pick me up,\u201d Ertz said. \u201cIt\u2019s just like tears the moment I see her just crying, like uncontrollably. It was just tough.\u201d<\/p>\n

Julie Ertz probably understands her husband\u2019s plight better than most wives. The two-time U.S. Soccer Female Player of the Year faced difficult decisions late in her career. In 2021, she played in the\u00a0Olympics<\/a>\u00a0despite suffering a torn medial collateral ligament in her knee just two months earlier.<\/p>\n

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Two years later, she played in every minute of the USWNT\u2019s four matches in the\u00a0World Cup<\/a>\u00a0after taking an 18-month hiatus for injuries and motherhood. Julie announced her retirement in August 2023. The twins were born almost a year later.<\/p>\n

Zach said he\u2019s engaged as a father but he isn\u2019t ready to hang up his cleats.<\/p>\n

\u201cJulie\u2019s like, \u2018Whatever you want to do, you should go for it,\u2019 like she\u2019s been that way our entire career,\u201d Ertz said. \u201cIt\u2019s such a benefit to able to be married to someone that has experienced many of the same emotions that come with the sport and understanding [what] my days are like right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ertz said he wakes up most mornings around 6:30, puts his compression boots on, and makes his sons breakfast. On this day, he made \u201cprotein pancakes\u201d with cottage cheese, eggs and rolled oats.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey crushed them. All three of them just eat,\u201d Ertz said. \u201cThe amount of food we\u2019re gonna have to buy when they\u2019re legit older is gonna be insane.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ertz said he then drives Madden to school from his Scottsdale home on the way to AMDG. Zach\u2019s next four hours are spent undergoing therapy and then training in the large weight room normally reserved for local NFL offensive linemen during the offseason.<\/p>\n

After two hours with K2, Ertz strapped on a pair of old Nikes \u2014 \u201cmy squatting shoes,\u201d he called them \u2014 and headed to the gym. He works out alone. He said he\u2019s had essentially the same routine since his college years at Stanford, when he first worked with famed strength coach Shannon Turley.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe just instilled all this stuff, like the nutrition, the recovery, when I was 18,\u201d Ertz said. \u201cHe said I was so stiff as a freshman in college that if I was a horse, he would have put me down.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Ertz said he still talks to Turley nearly every day. He believes he still has the same spring in his step compared to when he set the Eagles\u2019 single-season mark for catches and was voted to three straight Pro Bowls from 2017-19.<\/p>\n

But he knows Father Time is calling. The\u00a0Hard Knocks<\/em>\u00a0episode that featured Ertz included a light moment when Commanders tight ends coach David Raih interspersed highlights of the 35-year old with a clip of an elderly man\u00a0slowly running with the football<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Raih could joke because Ertz knew how much the coach respected his player.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve coached a ton of guys. Been in all four divisions in the NFC. And the best two guys I worked with are [Hall of Fame receiver] Larry Fitzgerald and Zach Ertz,\u201d Raih said on\u00a0Hard Knocks<\/em>. \u201cHe\u2019s one of those players you tell the young players, \u2018You may go your whole career and never be around a guy like Zach.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThe detail, the work ethic, the precision. He truly believes in his process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ertz is still as committed. He said he doesn\u2019t bring work home as much as he used to, though. After working out, he\u2019ll recover in a hyperbaric chamber for about an hour and a half, and then sweat and soak it out in the sauna and cold tub.<\/p>\n

But when he returns to Julie and the boys \u2014 and that goes for in-season, as well \u2014 he\u2019s just a husband and father.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one\u2019s gonna remember how many catches I had or how I played in the game,\u201d Ertz said. \u201cPeople are gonna remember the impact I made or how I made them feel. And so, I think feel like that stage of my career has really grown since I left Philly and had kids.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing able to come home and not be in your own thoughts, because kids don\u2019t care about football. They don\u2019t care about how I did in practice. They want me to come home and be Dad.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Time to reflect<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n

The shifting of priorities away from football has made Ertz reconsider how he handled himself earlier in his career. He said he viewed everyone in the tight end room as competition, especially when the Eagles drafted Goedert in 2018. Ertz was only 28 then and in his prime.<\/p>\n

But he said he embraced mentorship in Washington with younger tight ends like John Bates and Ben Sinnott.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI didn\u2019t open up a lot back then,\u201d Ertz said of his time with the Eagles. \u201cI was kind of just\u00a0stay in my own lane. I\u2019m gonna work as hard as I can and the relationship piece is, like, way down the line<\/em>. Whereas now, as I\u2019ve gotten older, I really try to pour into these young tight ends more than I did.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Ertz admitted he \u201cprobably rubbed some people a little bit the wrong way,\u201d but he said he had no regrets about his 8\u00bd seasons in Philly. Well, except for one thing.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI probably wouldn\u2019t have dyed my hair,\u201d Ertz said.<\/p>\n

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After months of trade rumors and speculation about his future during the 2021 offseason, Ertz showed up at training camp in bleached-blond hair. He was clearly making a statement. But Ertz concedes now that it was unnecessary and uncharacteristic.<\/p>\n

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He was gone by Week 7, dealt to the Cardinals for cornerback Tay Gowen and a fifth-round draft pick.<\/p>\n

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Ertz said any bitter feelings he had about the divorce have subsided. He looks back on his tenure with only affection. When he returned to Lincoln Financial Field for the first time in November 2024, the Eagles showed him on the Jumbotron and he received a warm ovation.<\/p>\n

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He caught six passes and a touchdown, but Washington lost. A month later, the Commanders returned the favor in Landover, Md. Ertz had only one catch, a fact Eagles coach\u00a0Nick Sirianni<\/a>\u00a0threw in his face when they shook hands afterward.<\/p>\n

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Ertz took exception and went back after his former coach<\/a>, but he laughed it off 15 months later.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThat was two competitive guys that hate losing,\u201d Ertz said. \u201cWe have a great relationship still.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The two teams met again in the NFC championship game, but the Eagles won in a blowout. Ertz pulled in 11 passes for 104 yards, but watching his former team celebrate at the Linc \u2014 just as he had seven years earlier \u2014 was a tough pill to swallow.<\/p>\n

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When Ertz walked across the field after the final whistle, Eagles tackle\u00a0Lane Johnson<\/a>\u00a0was waiting for him.<\/p>\n

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\u201cHe\u2019s, like, in tears,\u201d Ertz said. \u201cI\u2019m like, \u2018Bro, what is wrong, you just won the game?\u2019 He\u2019s like, \u2018You should just be over here.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Eagles\u2019 2023 trip to the Super Bowl was more difficult to stomach than the 2024 season\u2019s in February 2025, Ertz said, because the wounds were still fresh and many of his former teammates were still on the roster. He\u2019s still plugged into the team and Philly, where his family\u2019s foundation still does much of its community service, and won\u2019t rule out a return.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI think everyone knows how I feel about that place, that city, in particular,\u201d Ertz said. \u201cI loved it, loved it. And I wouldn\u2019t close that door either by any means. I think it\u2019s worth the conversation, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Only four tight ends in NFL history have more than his 825 career receptions. But he said surpassing Harold Carmichael\u2019s Eagles mark of 589 catches is \u201cdefinitely not lost on me.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cI would love him to get it,\u201d Lurie said, \u201cbut not at the expense of what we need to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Whether Ertz gets a chance to break the record or not, he will eventually be granted the franchise\u2019s greatest honor as a member of the Eagles Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI love Zach and his legacy is phenomenal and his personhood in Philadelphia is incredible,\u201d Lurie said. \u201cPeople don\u2019t realize. It\u2019ll come out more when we induct him and we\u2019ll make sure people realize [he was] much more than just the player.\u201d<\/p>\n

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There will come a time when he\u2019s no longer playing the game that has defined him for the last 30 years. Ertz said, if forced, he could accept not suiting up again. But he said he will do everything he can to prevent that from being the case.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI don\u2019t want to retire with any regret,\u201d Ertz said. \u201cLike\u00a0if only I worked a little harder, if only I tried a little harder, if only I studied a little more<\/em>. I\u2019ve poured everything into this thing. And so, if I wasn\u2019t able to play again, I could walk away knowing that, hey, I gave it my all.<\/p>\n

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\u201cBut I still want to play. And I think the time to reflect is when it\u2019s officially done. But I don\u2019t think that is right now.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

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Is this it? 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