FOXBOROUGH, Ma. — Zach Ertz is not going away.
The Commanders tight finish is coming into his thirteenth NFL season, however it’s solely his second as a trusted goal for Jayden Daniels in Washington. And simply as he was for a lot of Daniels’ rookie season, Ertz was focused early and sometimes within the workforce’s joint observe on the New England Patriots on Wednesday.
A type of targets got here simply as Daniels was getting pressured by the Patriots move rush, throwing on the final attainable second to Ertz, who had received his route towards a defender on a brief dig route. Pitch and catch.
One other throw got here late in observe when Ertz, from the slot, had good timing with Daniels on an out route on a play that might have been good for a primary down.
Ertz received extra seems from Daniels than new Washington receiver Deebo Samuel. And clearly greater than stud wideout Terry McLaurin who’s each away from the workforce over a contract dispute and on the Commanders’ Bodily Unable to Carry out record.
“I like our tight ends versus linebackers and safeties, particularly Ertz,” Daniels instructed SiriusXM NFL Radio within the days earlier than the joint observe. “Ertz is a wily veteran, he loves that sort of factor, you get one-on-ones outdoors.”
The expectation is that McLaurin will finally rejoin the Commanders and get his position again as Daniels’ go-to receiver. However that does not imply Ertz will wilt away. His re-emergence is not a one-year deal. He is locked into the No. 1 tight finish position, and the added bonus of left deal with Laremy Tunsil becoming a member of the workforce and permitting playcaller Kliff Kingsbury to ask Ertz to chip-block much less and simply run a route with a free launch ought to imply modest enchancment within the 34-year-old’s effectivity. That is on high of him being a high quality red-zone weapon.
What sort of enchancment? Effectively, final yr Ertz was form of an afterthought to start the yr, not seeing 5.0 targets per recreation, not seeing red-zone targets, he was actually not as large of part of the offense till October. As soon as Kingsbury applied him extra and Daniels discovered to belief him, Ertz averaged 5.6 targets per recreation and 12.0 PPR factors per recreation in his remaining 11. Touchdowns boosted his numbers — all seven of his scores got here in that span, together with one from Marcus Mariota towards the Panthers after Daniels left the matchup early with an damage.
To his credit score, Ertz is not standing on previous successes. You will spot him doing one thing on the sidelines when he isn’t on the sphere. He says he likes to push himself to the purpose of overworking — he is had coaches inform him he is carried out an excessive amount of. He would not care.
“You see me doing all the discharge work each day in the event you watch throughout particular groups,” Ertz stated in late July. “That is how I begin each observe, is to work on my stance, my begins, work on my press releases as a result of I really feel like as soon as I am into my routes, nobody can actually cowl me. It is simply in the event that they get a hand on me early, that messes up the timing. So, for me it is at all times about simply looking for little methods to get higher.”
And to the Commanders’ credit score, they are not stress-free both. Ertz, Daniels and Kingsbury have all spoken at totally different factors this summer time not solely about altering up the offense to make it much less predictable, but in addition talk with one another, in any respect hours of the day, on how they need to fine-tune their routes, their throws, their play designs, and so forth.
“[O]bviously going into final yr everybody was studying the system, so it was very vanilla,” Ertz defined. “Now you actually need to take the subsequent step by way of bettering the small print. We’re not beginning on first base per se, we’re beginning possibly on second base by way of the small print and guys understanding the performs. So, actually it is simply superb tuning issues, but in addition you may’t be the identical. We won’t simply roll out with the playbook Week 1 and anticipate issues to occur. There’s gotta be new performs, there’s gotta be just a little evolution within the playbook.”
Perhaps the expectation earlier than coaching camp was that Samuel’s arrival would imply the tip of Ertz having a task, however Daniels seemingly cannot give up throwing to, or speaking about, Ertz. There have been occasions this summer time the place he brings him up unprompted when making a degree about how he goes via his reads, or who he confers with late at evening about being on the identical web page.
Prefer it or not, Ertz goes to be a element of the Commanders offense. Not like Brock Bowers or Sam LaPorta are with theirs, however he is in all probability not too removed from the place guys like Jake Ferguson or Dallas Goedert are with their offenses. And in Ertz’s case, no less than he has a shot to be second on the workforce in targets — particularly if the unfathomable holdout McLaurin’s had continues into the yr.
You may draft him with a late choose. I imply, late late. Might even be your final choose. And if he is anyplace close to 12 PPR factors per recreation, he’ll be greater than price it.