Brent Jones saw the potential in Zach Ertz before he did.
The three-time Super Bowl champion and four-time Pro Bowl tight end received a phone call from Craig Bergman, the varsity head football coach at Monte Vista High School in California. Bergman said he had a tight end on the JV squad who showed a lot of promise but needed some special attention.
Ertz was that tight end.
“I was so darn tough on him,” Jones recalls. “The thing that stood out about Zach was that he had the size and he had the athleticism. He wasn’t exactly fast at the time. He had grown a lot and he was growing into his body but his hand-eye coordination was remarkable. I would grind him day in and day out about specifics of route-running, blocking, techniques, skills. I saw potential in him the first few weeks that Zach didn’t really see in himself yet.”
Ertz, also a promising basketball player, still thought that’s where his future lied. Jones couldn’t believe it.
By his senior season, Ertz was a first-team all-state selection catching 56 passes for 756 yards and 14 touchdowns with a scholarship in hand to Stanford. Ertz established himself as one of the best players in the country with the Cardinal, hauling in 69 receptions for 898 yards as a junior - both school records for the position and more than any other tight end in the FBS ranks. He was a unanimous first-team All-America choice and declared for the 2013 NFL Draft.
Ertz was picked by the Eagles 35th overall, the highest one used on the position since Keith Jackson (13th overall) in 1988. Ertz learned about the area from his father, Douglas, who played college football at nearby Lehigh University.
Ertz relished the taste of success that he had up to that point and didn’t want it to go away just because he reached the NFL.
“This is such a short chapter of your life that I’m putting everything that I have to this basket right now,” Ertz says. “Whether it be on the field or off the field, in the weight room, or on the practice field. So when I’m done hopefully in a long time when I look back I can say I gave everything into that and have no regrets. There’s nothing that I could’ve done more to further my career to make me a better player.
“You always hear those stories of, ‘If only I did this or if only I didn’t do that,’ and I’m trying to just attack that now so when I’m done I don’t have any of those regrets down the road.”
It also helps that Ertz has Brent Celek, the longest-tenured pro athlete in Philadelphia in the tight end meeting room.
“From the minute that I stepped foot in Philadelphia, before that first Training Camp, he’s always been there to help me out whether it is mentally or on the field physically. He’s the ultimate teammate, truly a selfless player. He doesn’t care how many catches or yards in a game. He cares more about getting other guys open or encouraging me to be the best tight end that I can be,” Ertz says.
“You hear horror stories of guys around the league being a high draft pick and the veterans don’t even engage with them because they see the writing on the wall and they’re saying, ‘This is my family. This is how I feed my family doing this.’ Brent was the opposite. He knows that his career has been extended because he doesn’t have to take as many reps so I think we’ve helped each other a lot these past few years. We have a friendship that’s going to last a lifetime.”
Ertz is also inspired by another pro athlete - his wife, Julie, a defender for the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team that took home the World Cup in July 2015. Ertz was there to celebrate the win, but with Training Camp right around the corner, he did not miss a workout.
“I flew up for a game on Sunday. I flew back to San Diego to train for the week (with teammates) and then I went back up for the final the following Sunday,” Ertz recalls. “Watched the game in Vancouver but that following Monday there wasn’t a flight out early enough for that next morning so I actually just rushed back to San Diego on the first flight out and just had a little one-on-one session with the trainer instead of the group.”
The hard work is paying off. Ertz showed immense promise from his rookie season and was rewarded with a contract extension following the 2015 campaign. Injuries and inconsistent quarterback play, however, kept him from reaching his potential.
Until now, that is. He’s first in the NFC among all tight ends in receptions (55), receiving yards (639), touchdowns (7), and receiving first downs (36).
Ertz credits a second straight season with quarterback Carson Wentz as a big reason for his role in the offense.
Ertz’s role model in the locker room is not surprised by the fifth-year player’s progress.
“I think he’s a great player,” Celek says. “What you’re seeing now, he’s been doing a lot of that. I’m glad that he and Carson are clicking together. They’re playing really well. They understand each other and you’re seeing the benefits of it.”
The Eagles’ offense ranks first in the league in points per game. Ertz’s ability to use his 6-5, 250-pound frame in the red zone helps make Wentz’s job much easier as well.
“We put in the work and he’s a really talented football player,” Wentz says. “He knows coverages, recognizes things, knows when he’s (the hot read on a blitz). He’s really kind of in my head.
“When a guy like that knows how to create separation and play on time and be on the same page as me, that makes it tough to stop.”
“He’s playing great. I’ve been fortunate enough in my 11-year NFL career to be around a lot of really good tight ends, Zach Ertz understands leverage more than any player I’ve ever been around whether it’d be a receiver, a running back, or a tight end,” quarterbacks coach John DeFilippo says. “He just understands leverage and how to set defenders up.”
Ertz remains on pace to potentially set franchise records for any receiver in team history, not just among tight ends.
“I haven’t thought much about the numbers or where I rank, but, yeah, someday I want to have those numbers,” he says. “By the end of my career, that’s definitely one of the goals I have marked on my goal sheet: By the time I’m done here, to have all the tight end records.”
Written by: Chris McPherson
Designed by: Loraine Griffiths