Washington Commanders' Ertz Plans to Keep Playing

Jason Burke | Jan 28, 2025

Jan 18, 2025; Detroit, Michigan, USA; Washington Commanders tight end Zach Ertz (86) celebrates a touchdown during the second quarter against Detroit Lions at Ford Field. Mandatory Credit: David Reginek-Imagn Images / David Reginek-Imagn Images

Before signing with the Washington Commanders last March, it was unclear how much longer the career of tight end Zach Ertz would last. After he was traded by the Philadelphia Eagles during the 2021 season, landing with the Arizona Cardinals, injuries began to plague his career and limited his playing time and production in two years with the Cardinals in 2022 and 2023.

During that 2021 season, he played in 17 games and hauled in 74 catches for 763 yards. After a similar season with Washington, where he played in every game and caught 66 passes for 654 yards, Ertz told ESPN that he does not want to retire.

"I'm not retiring just because I had so much fun this year" Ertz told ESPN on Monday. "I feel rejuvenated. I feel young. I played good football this year, so for me it's figuring out everything going forward, and they know how I feel about this place."

Given the amount of trust that the 34-year-old built with rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels this past season, it would make sense for the Commanders to look into bringing the tight end back. It appears to be an open secret that he would like to return.

His best game of the season came on Sunday, and it was the only contest all year in which he had more than ten catches and crossed the century mark in receiving yards. He finished the game with 11 catches on 16 targets for 104 yards.

One way that Washington helped keep him on the field was to limit his playing time in the preseason, and his snap counts over the course of the season. He ended up being on the field for 66% of all offensive snaps over the course of the season, which is in line with where it was last season (64%), though in ten more games.

It's also worth pointing out that even though he wasn't on the field 80-90% of the time like he was from 2016-2020, he was still nearly the same guy on a per-catch basis, putting up 9.9 yards per catch. In 2019 when he had 88 catches for 916 yards and six touchdowns, he was on the field 86% of the time and averaged 10.4 yards per catch.

During the 2023 season, the Cardinals ended up waiving Ertz, who was left without a team until January 22, when the Detroit Lions added him to their practice squad during the team's playoff run. His contract expired a couple of weeks later.

Coming into camp this season, it was unclear at first what his role would be on this Washington team. Now he is set to keep on playing after having a blast with the Commanders in 2024. The hope will obviously be to help the team reach the Super Bowl following their NFC Championship defeat, should he return.

Free agency opens up in March, so we will surely be hearing rumors about where he will play next in the coming weeks.