According to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, the Philadelphia Eagles have picked up the ball when it comes to working a contract extension for their franchise tight end, Zach Ertz.
This shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. In the space of 24 hours, the entire TE market reset and spiked in value, leaving Ertz twiddling his thumbs.
George Kittle set the ball rolling by signing a five-year contract worth $75M with $40M being guaranteed, making him the highest-paid TE in the NFL by quite some margin. Travis Kelce then followed suit by signing a 4-year extension worth $57 million that has $28 million in guarantees.
Ertz is smashing through just about every franchise record that exists and with the Eagles already some $84M over the cap next year, it may make sense to work out a deal sooner rather than later. That’s a sentiment shared by the Stanford product at the very least.
During the heart of last season, two players were knocking on the door of an extension. One was Lane Johnson, who got his payday in November to the tune of $72M and the other was Zach Ertz, who remains untouched.
It is worth noting that Ertz reportedly denied a deal that was marching to the same beat as Austin Hooper’s $10.5M average yearly value that was given to him last year. It’s not really hard to see why considering the gulf in talent level between the two.
After 2021, both Zach Ertz and Dallas Goedert will be free agents, meaning the Eagles should be willing to strike a deal now before Ertz has a chance to increase his value even further with yet another under-valued, but stunning season.
Photo by Andy Lewis/Icon Sportswire
