Eagles news: Dallas Goedert, Zach Ertz no longer wanted to share snaps

Football’s a very complicated game, one where the job’s characteristics don’t mirror a lot of the characteristics of our own. Just ask Philadelphia Eagles tight end Dallas Goedert and former Bird/franchise legend Zach Ertz. There’s always this feeling of genuine support and fierce competition.

Think about our own workdays, and it becomes an even more difficult bond to understand.

Imagine being in a position and seeing your company hire someone to do the same job you’re doing. Not only that, try to imagine a scenario in which you’re asked to tutor the new hire and spend every day with them. That, ladies and gentlemen, is the life of just about every NFL veteran and the relationship that Ertz and Goedert have shared for the past three seasons and six games.

Again, it’s a relationship that only they can understand, but it also brings something else into focus. Both guys weren’t going to be able to retire as Eagles or even walk into next season as teammates, and that’s all that it takes to really get the competitive juices flowing.

The Eagles’ tight ends shared a bond and friendly competition at the same time.

For a while, it was boatloads of fun. The Eagles had two of the NFL’s top ten tight ends, one seen as one of the top three players at his position for quite some time and another that was young, raw, and extremely talented.

As is the case with most situations like this, it was going to be hard to keep the train going, especially in the National Football League. Those types of situations are never going to last forever. Other teams will steal the brilliant coordinator and make him a head coach. Teams with needs at a position will come knocking on the door. You’ve seen it countless times before, and this was no different.

There’s also this. Both Goedert and Ertz’s deals ended at the close of the 2021-2022 NFL season. Giving both a huge extension was going to be tough if not impossible, and let’s be honest. These are competitors. Both wanted to be the guy, and according to Goedert, who spoke with the Philly media recently, both guys were tired of the arrangement as it was.

Here’s a quote:

"I think it was mutual between him and I that neither of us wanted to be splitting time. We both thought that we should be (the) number-one tight ends. We should be on the field on first, second, and third down. It was what it was. We’ve been doing it for so long. I understood the situation that we had at hand with him and I there, but splitting time wasn’t something either one of us wanted to do, and I’m excited to have the role of being number one."

There’s nothing wrong with any of that or anything wrong with him saying any of that. Goedert credits Ertz for being a great mentor, teammate, and friend. They genuinely liked each other and helped each other. Goedert also said that it felt strange to walk into the locker room and not see Ertz around. This is the NFL though.

These guys are competitors. These guys want to win, and if they’re going to be among the game’s best, they’re supposed to want to be on the field. They’re supposed to want to be ‘the guy’, and as a matter of fact, though most of us will never know what it’s like to be on an NFL playing surface, we can all say this with utmost confidence.

Any player that doesn’t think that way probably needs to find a new line of work. The Dallas Goedert era begins in Week 7 versus the Las Vegas Raiders.