Zach Ertz wants to play another season; should Washington re-sign him?

Zach Ertz has been the Washington Commanders TE1 since since with them in 2024. He has led the position group in receiving, yards, and scoring, and has been a great veteran presence in the locker room

for the last two seasons. He suffered an ugly looking ACL tear when he had his legs taken out while mid-air against the Minnesota Vikings in Week 14, leading to speculation that he could hang up the cleats after his 13th NFL season.

Tom Pelissero reports from the NFL Scouting Combine that not only does Ertz plan on playing another season, he expects to be cleared right around Week 1 this season. He has been rehabbing, and preparing for his return to the field. The question now is where will he play as he once again prepares for free agency after playing on a 1-year, $6.25 million deal that was worth up to $9 million with incentives.

The Commanders brought Ertz back last year after not making any significant upgrades to their tight end room. John Bates has been the number 2, blocking tight end, and will remain in that role for another season. Ben Sinnott was a second-round pick during Adam Peters’ first draft class, but hasn’t turned into the weapon that was envisioned on draft day. Colson Yankoff remains the jack of all trades, special at special teams player that got him signed after the 2024 draft. Everyone else the team brought in last year was either cut, or stashed on the practice squad for a rainy day.

Washington had the oldest team in the league last year, and Adam Peters will look to get away from that distinction, while still filling a roster that has over 30 pending free agents. Some people are still holding out hope for Sinnott to step into a bigger role, but his production didn’t rise significantly with Ertz out. The Commanders have plenty of cap space heading into free agency if they want to replace Ertz with a younger TE like the Ravens’ Isaiah Likely. They also have six picks in April’s draft, with the potential to add more through trades.

If Ertz is ready to go by Week 1(ish), should Washington bring back one of Jayden Daniels most reliable receiving options. Or is it time to move on, especially with a player coming back from a major injury?

Receiving & Rushing Table

							Receiving												Rushing									Scrimmage
Season	Age	Team	Lg	Pos	G	GS	Tgt	Rec	Yds	Y/R	TD	1D	Succ%	Lng	R/G	Y/G	Ctch%	Y/Tgt	Att	Yds	TD	1D	Succ%	Lng	Y/A	Y/G	A/G	Touch	Y/Tch	YScm	RRTD	Fmb	AV	Awards
2013	23	PHI	NFL	TE	16	3	57	36	469	13.0	4	25	50.9	38	2.3	29.3	63.2	8.2	0	0	0	0				0.0	0.0	36	13.0	469	4	0	4
2014	24	PHI	NFL	TE	16	5	89	58	702	12.1	3	42	58.4	35	3.6	43.9	65.2	7.9	0	0	0	0				0.0	0.0	58	12.1	702	3	1	5
2015	25	PHI	NFL	TE	15	7	112	75	853	11.4	2	40	51.8	60	5.0	56.9	67.0	7.6	0	0	0	0				0.0	0.0	75	11.4	853	2	1	6
2016	26	PHI	NFL	TE	14	12	106	78	816	10.5	4	42	57.5	30	5.6	58.3	73.6	7.7	0	0	0	0				0.0	0.0	78	10.5	816	4	0	7
2017	27	PHI	NFL	TE	14	13	110	74	824	11.1	8	46	56.4	53	5.3	58.9	67.3	7.5	0	0	0	0				0.0	0.0	74	11.1	824	8	1	8	PB
2018	28	PHI	NFL	TE	16	16	156	116	1163	10.0	8	66	57.1	34	7.3	72.7	74.4	7.5	0	0	0	0				0.0	0.0	116	10.0	1163	8	1	9	PB
2019	29	PHI	NFL	TE	15	15	135	88	916	10.4	6	50	56.3	30	5.9	61.1	65.2	6.8	0	0	0	0				0.0	0.0	88	10.4	916	6	1	7	PB
2020	30	PHI	NFL	TE	11	11	72	36	335	9.3	1	16	38.9	42	3.3	30.5	50.0	4.7	0	0	0	0				0.0	0.0	36	9.3	335	1	0	3
2021	31	2TM	NFL	TE	17	14	112	74	763	10.3	5	42	50.0	47	4.4	44.9	66.1	6.8	1	4	0	0	100.0	4	4.0	0.2	0.1	75	10.2	767	5	0	8
2021	31	PHI	NFL	TE	6	3	31	18	189	10.5	2	10	45.2	28	3.0	31.5	58.1	6.1	0	0	0	0				0.0	0.0	18	10.5	189	2	0	2
2021	31	ARI	NFL	TE	11	11	81	56	574	10.3	3	32	51.9	47	5.1	52.2	69.1	7.1	1	4	0	0	100.0	4	4.0	0.4	0.1	57	10.1	578	3	0	6
2022	32	ARI	NFL	TE	10	10	69	47	406	8.6	4	24	55.1	32	4.7	40.6	68.1	5.9	0	0	0	0				0.0	0.0	47	8.6	406	4	0	3
2023	33	ARI	NFL	TE	7	7	43	27	187	6.9	1	8	41.9	17	3.9	26.7	62.8	4.3	0	0	0	0				0.0	0.0	27	6.9	187	1	0	2
2024	34	WAS	NFL	TE	17	17	91	66	654	9.9	7	51	63.7	37	3.9	38.5	72.5	7.2	0	0	0	0				0.0	0.0	66	9.9	654	7	1	7	AP CPoY-17
2025	35	WAS	NFL	TE	13	13	72	50	504	10.1	4	25	51.4	30	3.8	38.8	69.4	7.0	0	0	0	0				0.0	0.0	50	10.1	504	4	1	5
13 Yrs					181	143	1224	825	8592	10.4	57	477	54.1	60	4.6	47.5	67.4	7.0	1	4	0	0	100.0	4	4.0	0.0	0.0	826	10.4	8596	57	7	74
17 Game Avg					17	13	115	77	807	10.4	5	45	54.1	60	4.6	47.5	67.4	7.0	0	0	0	0	100.0	4	4.0	0.0	0.0	78	10.4	807	5	1	6
PHI (9 Yrs)					123	85	868	579	6267	10.8	38	337	54.0	60	4.7	51.0	66.7	7.2	0	0	0	0				0.0	0.0	579	10.8	6267	38	5	51
ARI (3 Yrs)					28	28	193	130	1167	9.0	8	64	50.8	47	4.6	41.7	67.4	6.0	1	4	0	0	100.0	4	4.0	0.1	0.0	131	8.9	1171	8	0	11
WAS (2 Yrs)					30	30	163	116	1158	10.0	11	76	58.3	37	3.9	38.6	71.2	7.1	0	0	0	0				0.0	0.0	116	10.0	1158	11	2	12

Provided by Pro-Football-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 2/24/2026.