Latest / Inside the Birds: A Philadelphia Eagles Podcast / The DiCecco Daily, Part 2: Eagles Sign Zach Ertz To Practice Squad, Expecting To Miss Goedert For Weeks

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The DiCecco Daily, Part 2: Eagles Sign Zach Ertz To Practice Squad, Expecting To Miss Goedert For Weeks · Inside the Birds: A Philadelphia Eagles Podcast

• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Hey, what's going on, everybody? Welcome into another episode of
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: the Checo Daily. It's Andrew DiCecco, Eagles beat reporter for InsideTheBirds.com.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: And Eagles tight end Dallas Goddard, according to a report
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: from NFL Network, is expected to miss, quote unquote, a
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: few weeks. with a sprained MCO in which he sustained
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: in the second quarter on a run play where I
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: saw a defender sort of contact his leg there.
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: So that's going to be a big loss for the
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: Eagles because.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: They didn't have a ton there behind Dallas Goddard and
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: blocking-centric tight ends Johnny Munt and EJ Jenkins. But according
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: to reports, they did bring back a familiar face.
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: That's right.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: Eagles tight end Zach Ertz is back. albeit on the
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: practice squad to start. And Zach Ertz has 579 receptions
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: for the Eagles, played in 123 games. He was a
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: second-round pick, 35th overall in 2013, and a franchise icon.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: Of course, he scored the game-winning touchdown in Super Bowl LII.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: So there's a lot of.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: I guess there's a lot of love there on both sides,
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: a lot of history on both sides. And he made
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: the most sense of all the players that could be
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: replacements in the interim for Dallas Goddard. But regardless, it's
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: a big loss because Goddard is, well, one, he's younger.
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: He's 31 years old. Ertz is 35.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: But Goddard is someone that appears to be a big
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: piece of this offense.
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: Under Sean Mannion.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: Just look at his involvement in the week one win
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: over the Washington Commanders in which he had 77.
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: Yards and two touchdowns. He had a reception for four
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: yards in.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: The second game of the season, but it was pretty
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: evident that you're going to see a lot more tight.
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: End utilization in this offense.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: And now, behind Goddard, that was the big question because
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: they didn't have an obvious choice to fill the void
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: if he were to miss time. I highlighted the blocking-centric
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: players in EJ Jenkins and Johnny Munt, but that replacement
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: was expected to be Eli Stowers, who is on injured
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: reserve right now and still appears to be a ways
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: away from being able to be a primetime player for
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: the Eagles.
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: And that's fine.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: That's the nature of the development aspect of when it
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: comes to rookies and really young players, but it did
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: put the Eagles in a little bit of a bind there.
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: And Grant Calcaterra, who would be an obvious choice as
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: an immediate solution, he would have been, he's also on
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: injured reserve. So it kind of put the Eagles in
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: a little bit of a bind, and they had to
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: do something there. They had Josiah DeGuar, they still have
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: him on the practice squad, so if the Eagles need
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: a player who is a little bit more familiar with
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: the system and might be able to get them through
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: one week while Hurts continues to learn, and it may
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: take a little bit of time even for a veteran,
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: we'll have to wait and see. We'll have to talk
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: to him this week, but they now have a couple
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: of more options that they can turn to, and....
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: With Zach Ertz, a really good route runner.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: Not the fastest guy, not someone who's going to serve
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: as an in-line blocker, but in terms of being able
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: to supplement the room with what they need.
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: Right now, he is an obvious choice. We'll see what
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: he has left.
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: Last season for the Commanders, 50 catches, 504 yards and
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: four touchdowns, suffered a severe knee injury, and he's now
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: nine months removed from that. So we'll get a chance
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: to talk to Ertz this week and learn about the injury,
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: his recovery process, how he's transitioning to this offense and
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: where he is in terms of learning it. Is it
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: to a degree in which he might be able to
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: help the Eagles on Monday night against the Bears?
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: We'll have to find out.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: But this is someone who has a lot of history
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: here in Philadelphia. He's made some really critical plays for
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: the team, none more so than the.
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: Game-winning touchdown in Super Bowl LII.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: And Well, he worked a little bit with Jalen Hurts
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: as well. So that's important to note here. But, yeah,
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: this is a position that the Eagles went into the
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: regular season a little light, a little thin there. And
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: there were obvious questions that you didn't think you were
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: going to have to circle back on this early in
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: the season, but this is where they are.
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: They're really banged up at that position.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: We'll see and learn about what Zach Ertz has left,
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: but a move there needed to happen, and they now
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: have someone who is a capable pass catcher, still can
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: run good routes. Even at 35 years old, he proved
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: last season that he can still be an effective player.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: The big question will be how he.
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: Responds and returns from that severe knee injury. But the
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: Eagles get an interim solution here in the absence of
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: Dallas Goddard, who, again, is expected to miss a quote-unquote
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: a few weeks, according to the report from NFL Network.
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: And we'll have to see how he progresses.
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: But as they prepare for week three, they will not
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: have one of their biggest contributors on the offensive side,
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: one of their most prominent playmakers for at least a
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: few weeks. But they took a quick action. They acted
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: quickly to fill that spot at home. Again, until we
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: learn more and talk to Zach Ertz, there's not a
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: whole lot more that I can add to this, but
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: I can tell you that as of last season, prior
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: to that knee injury, he was still an effective player
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: and can fill a complementary role on this offense while
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: Dallas Goddard is kind of mending from that sprained MCL.
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: That's going to do it for this episode of the
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: Checko Daily. I'm Andrew DiCecco, and we'll catch you all
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: on the next one.