Zach Ertz Rises to No. 40 on NFL Top 100 List

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By Paul Bowman, Sports Talk Philly Editor

The Eagles found themselves represented on the 2019 NFL Top 100 list with Carson Wentz falling from the top of the list to the bottom.

A few days later, center Jason Kelce appeared on the list for the first time in his dominant career.

On Sunday night, Eagles tight end Zach Ertz heard his name called as he rose from number 68 in 2018 to number 40 on this year’s list.

Ertz will be entering his seventh season in 2019 and it is good to have firmly placed his “breakout season”, which seemed to be coming for years, firmly behind him. Even better is that Ertz seems to continue to improve.

As most Eagles fans know already, Ertz broke Jason Witten’s record for most catches in a single season by a tight end by hauling in 116 passes in 2018. Ertz also played a vital role as one of two solid targets for Nick Foles early in the 2018 season when they were missing the likes of Alshon Jeffery and Mike Wallace.

It will be interesting to see where Ertz ranks next season with Dallas Goedert primed for a breakout season of his own and how the rest of the league will view the pair when they are on the same team.

That said, the Eagles figure to utilize a 12 personnel set heavily in 2019, which should allow for both tight ends to shine while allowing for more frequent breaks for receivers like Alshon Jeffery and DeSean Jackson. The team will certainly hope that they become the first team to have two tight ends appear on the Top 100 list in the same year.

Ertz received high praise from OJ Howard, George Kittle and Vernon Davis, who said that Ertz was the best tight end in the league, but it is interesting to note that neither Kittle not Travis Kelce has appeared on the list yet in 2019 and it is a near certainty that they will be on the list, meaning Ertz may still be ranked the third-best tight end in the league by his fellow players.