If you’re having a bad case of the Monday’s following yesterday’s loss to San Francisco, sorry for making it worse. The Eagles just announced that TE Zach Ertz has been placed on the COVID list following the game.
This doesn’t automatically mean that Ertz has the virus. The NFL implemented contract tracing last year in order to find players who may be at risk following the positive test of a player. The devices are to be worn during every game and team activity.
Depending on Ertz is vaccinated or not, he’ll either have to isolate for five or ten days, meaning that there is a chance he could be back in the lineup by Monday night’s game against Dallas. Players are tested every day and if each test is negative over a five day stretch, then they can return to the facility.
Notably, Alex Singleton missed a chunk of training camp due to being placed on the list.
This is a pretty significant blow to the offense. Ertz has appeared in 61% of snaps this year, which would still be a downtick compared to his usual best, but we know TE’s aren’t carrying the workload under Sirianni as they did in the previous regime. He’s caught 3 passes through 2 games for 40 yards and has had minimal attention from Jalen Hurts thus far. The real loss comes in the way of his blocking which has been integral to opening up the run.
Jack Stoll has sneakily been seeing a significant amount of playing time in 13-personnel sets and will be the next man up so to speak. If the Eagles do feel the need to add another tight end on a short-term basis, veteran Richard Rodgers is only a phone call away and spent the offseason trying to crack the roster.
It will be interesting to see how the Eagles handle this, but more importantly to see if any other players end up hitting the list as well.
Photo by Nicole Fridling/Icon Sportswire
