‘Never Wanted To Leave’

Zach Ertz made it clear that he never wanted to leave Philadelphia.

After nearly five seasons away, circumstances lured the Eagles great back to the place where Ertz’s potential Hall of Fame career began.

“There was never a plan to come back, obviously,” he said. “I never wanted to leave in the first place, so let’s just put that out there. When the opportunity finally arose that I could come back, there’s been times I’ve asked in the past, and it didn’t come to fruition for whatever reason.

“But for me, it’s just a blessing to be back. If you told me when I got hurt that I’d be back here in 9 1/2 months practicing for the Philadelphia Eagles, you could have signed me up then.

“So, for me, this is the place that I’ve always called home. This is the place that everyone asks [what] my favorite place to play is, everyone knows it’s here. There’s so many memories when you’re in a place for nine years, so it’s special to be back.”

With just a few practices under his belt, will Zach Ertz be active Monday night?

The Eagles drafted Ertz, who will be 36 next month, 35th overall in the 2013 NFL Draft. The three-time Pro Bowler appeared in 123 games for the team before being traded to the Arizona Cardinals, pulling in 579 receptions for 6,267 yards and 38 touchdowns.

He’ll forever be remembered for scoring the game-winning touchdown in Super Bowl LII, but Ertz could also have another opportunity upcoming to etch himself into Eagles history, as only 11 receptions stand between him breaking Harold Carmichael’s receptions record (589).

At his height, Ertz was widely regarded as one of the game’s premier receiving threats at his position. He even compiled impressive numbers in his final two seasons with the Washington Commanders, suggesting he still has some fuel left in the tank.

The veteran tight end suffered a devastating knee injury that shortened his 13th season and required an extensive recovery process. On that front, Ertz, now 9 1/2 months removed from the injury, offered an encouraging update.

“Knee feels great,” he said this week. “Obviously, been 9 1/2 months since I’ve played football, so there’s still football shape to get in. There’s some details that I have to learn for a new offense. So, I’m trying to cram. I’ve spent the last two days really grinding through the training camp playbooks and trying to learn all those and teaching myself, ’cause the coaches here are grinding on the game plan for this week.

“So, I’m trying to do a crash course in this offense. But overall, just trying to take it day by day, improve and show the coaches what I can still do.”

Whether or not Ertz will be elevated for the Eagles’ showdown in Chicago on Monday Night Football is out of his control. But he’s done everything possible to digest the offense and master the terminology, the latter of which, really, presents the biggest hurdle for a veteran of Ertz’s stature.

“I’ve learned the playbook 100 times at this point,” he said. “It’s like, I was talking to Andy Dalton about this. He said, ‘It’s almost like learning the colors. Red is now blue. Blue is now green.’ It’s the same routes that I’ve always ran, just called a different name. So, from a playbook standpoint, I thought it was smooth. And now it’s up to the coaches to kind of determine how they thought the week went.”

Ertz, of course, was signed to the Eagles’ practice squad with the intent of supplementing a tight end room that is without Dallas Goedert in the short term. He’ll team with Johnny Mundt and E.J. Jenkins as the Eagles navigate the interim.

He had some catching up to do this week on the mental side, to be sure, but also on the physical side, as Ertz had to first push past any apprehension with the knee and shake off the rust.

We’ll find out soon enough how Eagles’ coaches felt the week went for Ertz is his return, but the team can certainly use him.

What can’t be questioned is Ertz’s response to adversity, a defiance to merely succumbing to post-football life. The injury he sustained was gruesome and necessitated a long road to recovery, a daunting proposition for any athlete, let alone someone on the final green of a long career.

He’ll now have an opportunity to suit up under the bright lights of Monday Night Football, armed with a newfound perspective.

“When I got hurt, I really didn’t know if I was gonna be able to play football again,” he said. “It was a year 13, bad ACL, LCL injury. It was a very violent injury, the way it happened. So, for me, I didn’t really know if I was gonna be able to play football again, but I told myself I was gonna do everything I can to give myself a shot to not go out like that. And so, I really committed myself.

“My wife was a huge rock in my life. My kids were phenomenal. She really took on more of a role in the house, especially early, and I feel like as a dad now, my perspective has changed. I wanna give my sons something to look forward to when they’re going through some adversity, like, ‘Hey, Dad went through a really tough time,’ so I could give them some wisdom, some of the stuff that I went through to push through.

“And so for me, it was really, I was gonna do everything I could to get back, and I could live with those results. But if I couldn’t, then I would know I’d be at peace. But I couldn’t live with the fact that I just gave up, and there was a what-if hanging over my life for the rest of my life. So, for me, it’s kind of been my whole career. I’m gonna give it everything I got, and I can live with the results.”

— Andrew DiCecco (@AndrewDiCecco) is the Eagles beat reporter for InsideTheBirds.com.