Zach Ertz is only 27, but he has become the leader in the Eagles’ tight ends room.
Philadelphia released Brent Celek, and Trey Burton departed to Chicago in free agency. The Eagles signed Richard Rodgers, who is only 26 but views Ertz as a mentor. Youngsters Billy Brown, Adam Zaruba and Joshua Perkins are on the roster at the position, and the Eagles could draft a tight end, perhaps even in the first round.
“The room’s definitely going to be different,” Ertz said, via Les Bowen of philly.com. “It’s an opportunity for me to kind of move on to the next stage of my career, kind of be the veteran. I was listening to Richard Rodgers speak when he was introduced, [saying] ‘It’s going to be great to finally have a veteran tight end [to learn from].’ I was like, ‘Dude, I’m a year older than you.’ . . . Richard’s a very talented tight end, we’re excited about what he can do. We’ve got three talented tight ends that don’t know what they don’t know, but they have a lot of potential.
“Obviously, we lost two great people, first and foremost, and two really talented football players. Trey is moving on to something that he’s clearly earned, a [tight ends] room . . . where he’s the head guy. Brent, obviously, played 11 years here, which is phenomenal. He’ll probably go down as the best or second-best tight end to ever play here.”
