George Kittle and Travis Kelce got their big-money contracts recently, so naturally the discussion turns to Zach Ertz, who might be the third-best tight end in football, depending on how you feel about Mark Andrews or the un-retired Rob Gronkowski. TBD on Gronk, to see what he does down there in Tampa.

Most players give us canned crap when asked about their contract situations, or their future with a team, but Ertz was quite honest when he gave this quote today:

Here’s some context to understand where we’re at with Ertz:

  • George Kittle: 27 years old, signed a five-year deal worth $75 million with $40 million guaranteed
  • Travis Kelce: 31 years old, four years, $57 million, $27 million guaranteed
  • Ertz: 30 years old, signed a five-year, $42 million deal back in 2016, about $20 million guaranteed

 

Right now you’ve got Austin Hooper, Kyle Rudolph, and Hunter Henry earning a high annual average value than Ertz, which probably should not be the case. And when you compare Ertz’s numbers to those of Kittle and Kelce, the difference really isn’t that much.

From PFR:

Obviously for Ertz, he feels like he’s been a good trooper for the team for a long time, always reliable and steady and a good locker room guy. If the Birds feel like they need to clear cap in the future and like what they have in Dallas Goedert, okay, but we wouldn’t want to risk another Brian Dawkins situation here, where a fan-favorite contributor is just sort of iced out and doesn’t get taken care of.

Here’s one of Ertz’s quotes from today’s Zoom:

“I want to be here. I’ve never thought of playing in another city. My family loves it here. My mom lives here. My brother is going to Temple. His fiance is going to school out here. So we have roots here now, this is home to me. I will never think about playing in another jersey until, if that time were to come. You know I’ve always said from the moment I got here, I wanted to be like Kobe you know Kobe was a guy I always looked up to, Kobe Bryant, and he played with one organization, his entire career and that’s kinda what my goal was to always do was play here. I’ll never let the thought of playing in another jersey creep in because I don’t think I can picture that thought in my brain yet. I don’t even want to get there yet because I don’t want to shut the door. And then I think when you start having those thoughts so you’re not going to give 100%, and that’s something that I will never do. I’ll always give 100% for this team and the city, because of how much I love it here.”