A Howie Roseman strength we don’t talk about enough, a Zach Ertz appreciation and a Zach Ertz prediction and some early thoughts on rookie Ty Robinson.
After a short offseason – the Super Bowl was just 23 weeks ago – welcome to the final 2025 edition of Roob’s Random Eagles Offseason Observations. Training camp starts Wednesday, the first preseason game is in 18 days and the Cowboys come to the Linc in 46 days.
Starting in a few days, they won’t be “offseason observations” anymore.
1. It’s an annual rite of summer that star players demand new contracts or hold out from camp or ask for trades or threaten to retire. You see it all over the league this time of year. Even though most of those ugly situations eventually get resolved, they often leave hard feelings, cause tension in the locker room and create future problems with other players. One reason Joe Banner didn’t give T.O. a contract extension when he held out in the summer of 2005 was that if he did, he knew a bunch of agents representing other members of the 2004 Super Bowl team would be in his office the next day demanding new contracts. You have to really be careful when players threaten you. If you give in, you can really open the floodgates. Year after year, Howie Roseman has managed to avoid that sort of stuff. The last Eagles player to hold out from training camp was DeSean Jackson, who missed the first 11 days of training camp at Lehigh in 2011 in a contract dispute. By taking care of important contracts early, paying fair market value for deserving players and cutting ties with guys who he knows will have future contract issues, Roseman has managed to avoid ugly contract situations for most of his GM tenure. Zach Ertz in 2021 could have gotten ugly but never did. Other than that? It’s been smooth sailing and that’s huge. Contract drama can really have a damaging effect on a team. Just another thing Roseman is really good at.
2. Speaking of Ertz, he’s still really good. Did you know his 18 catches in last year’s postseason are the 2nd-most ever by a tight end after his 34th birthday? Travis Kelce had 32 in 2023, also at 34. Ertz had 66 catches during the regular season and only Kelce, Tony Gonzalez, Ben Watson and Jason Witten have had more at 34 or older. Ertz’s 11 catches vs. the Eagles in the NFC Championship Game are 5th-most ever by a tight end in a playoff game. Ertz goes into the 2025 season with 775 career receptions, 6th-most in NFL history by a tight end. He needs 41 catches to pass Shannon Sharpe and move into fifth. After that it’s only Gonzalez (1,325), Witten (1,228) and Kelce (1,004 and counting). Ertz’s eight seasons with 50 catches are 6th-most ever by a tight end, and his 12 career games with 10 or more catches are 3rd-most among tight ends (Kelce 18, Gonzalez (15). Is Ertz a Hall of Famer? He’s playing himself into the mix and with two more 50-catch type seasons he could really solidify his case. Every eligible tight end with 700 catches is already in the Hall of Fame and Witten is a lock to go in next year. And Ertz has a game-winning catch in the fourth quarter of a Super Bowl, which sure doesn’t hurt. With Jayden Daniels as his quarterback, Ertz has a chance to keep putting up big numbers. And here’s an out-of-left field prediction: Ertz will finish his career in 2027 with the Eagles.
3A. Jalen Hurts Stat of the Week I: Hurts already has the 10th-most one-yard touchdown runs in NFL history with 38. He’s only 21 behind record holder Hall of Famer John Riggins, who had 59 one-yard TD runs in his 15-year career with the Jets and Washington. Hurts didn’t have any one-yard TD runs as a rookie but had five in 2021, eight in 2022, 11 in 2023 and 14 last year. With the tush push intact for at least another year, no reason Hurts won’t pile up another dozen or so one-yard TDs this year. With 10, he’d tie Jerome Bettis at 48, which would leave him behind only Riggins, Marcus Allen (57) and Emmitt Smith (54). Over the last four years, Hurts has more than twice as many one-yard TDs as anybody else. Josh Jacobs is second with 17. Ricky Watters has the 2nd-most in Eagles history with 15, and Randall Cunningham and LeSean McCoy each have 14. Overall,
3B. Jalen Hurts Stat of the Week II: Including postseason, Hurts already has 65 career rushing touchdowns. After just four years as a starter, he already has more rushing TDs than 10 of 30 modern-era Hall of Fame running backs, including Gale Sayers, Paul Hornung and O.J. Simpson, and could pass Terrell Davis (72), Larry Csonka (73), Gratz High School’s Leroy Kelly (76), Earl Campbell (78) and Thurman Thomas (81) this year.
4. I know the Commanders went 12-5 last year, beat the Eagles late in the season, knocked off the top-seeded Lions in Detroit in the playoffs, reached the NFC Championship Game and have one of the NFL’s most gifted young quarterbacks. And I know the Cowboys are coming off a 7-10 season, failed to reach the conference title game for a 28th straight year, have bungled the Micah Parsons contract situation, made a completely uninspiring head coaching hire in Brian Schottenheimer and have a 32-year-old quarterback who’s missed 26 games over the last five seasons and won two playoff games in eight seasons. Still, I can’t help thinking the Cowboys might be the 2nd-best team in the NFC East. Neither team had a particularly good offseason. Washington has this elite young quarterback and surrounded him with the oldest roster in the NFL – by far. The Commanders average 27.8 years old, and the Steelers are 2nd-oldest with an average of 27.0. I just think they’re primed to take a step backwards this year. And one thing about the Cowboys: When Dak Prescott is healthy the Cowboys have good regular seasons. Four of the last five years he’s started at least 10 games the Cowboys have reached the postseason – all but 2019. Plus, Prescott is 11-2 all-time vs. Washington, averaging 33 points per game. He owns Washington. Maybe Daniels will change all that. Dak’s season was over last year before the first Dallas-Washington game (although Cooper Rush out-played Daniels in Washington in November in a Cowboys win). I certainly have no faith in the Cowboys doing anything in the postseason, and I think the gap between the Eagles and both of them is significant. But when all is said and done? Just a hunch that the Cowboys will be the Eagles’ biggest competition in the division.
5A. The Eagles allowed just two rushing touchdowns of five or more yards last year – Jayden Reed’s 33-yarder in the opener in São Paulo and Jayden Daniels’ 10-yarder at the Linc in the NFC Championship Game. They had 18 rushing touchdowns of five or more yards.
5B. All the rushing touchdowns vs. the Eagles combined last year totalled 58 yards. Saquon Barkley had seven rushing TDs longer than that.
6A. Saquon Barkley had more 60-yard touchdown runs last year than the Eagles had in 402 games from late in 1953 through late in 1981. Barkley had an NFL-record seven 60-yard TD runs last season. From Week 11 in 1953 through Week 7 of 1982 – a span of nearly three decades – the Eagles had six TD runs of at least 60 yards: Billy Ray Barnes had a 60-yarder at Green Bay in 1958 and a 61-yarder vs. Washington in 1959, Timmy Brown had a 61-yarder vs. the Giants at Yankee Stadium in 1962, Herb Lusk a 70-yarder vs. the Giants in 1977 at Giants Stadium and Wilbert Montgomery had TDs of 62 yards against the Vikings at Metropolitan Stadium in 1979 and vs. the Oilers in at the Vet in 1982.
6B. The only backs in NFL history with more career 60-yard TD runs than Barkley had in last year are Adrian Peterson (15), Jim Brown (9), Derrick Henry (9), Chris Johnson (8) and Barry Sanders (8).
6C. Barkley last year had more than twice as many 60-yard TDs than the rest of the NFC (Jahmyr Gibbs, Tayson Hill, Jameson Williams one each). The last time the entire NFC had at least seven 60-yard TD runs was 2020 (Aaron Jones and Miles Sanders two, Dalvin Cook, Kenyan Drake, Ronald Jones, David Montgomery and Raheem Mostert one each).
7A. Miles Sanders has a higher career rushing average than Saquon Barkley, his former college teammate. Sanders at 4.71 and Barkley 4.67.
7B. Prediction: That won’t be the case by mid-September.
8A. I’ll be surprised if rookie Ty Robinson isn’t a part of the Eagles’ interior defensive line rotation this year. After Jalen Carter, Jordan Davis and Moro Ojomo, there isn’t a lot, and we know Vic Fangio and Clint Hurtt like to go four deep inside. Last year, including postseason, Carter, Milton Williams, Davis and Ojomo all played at least 445 snaps. With Williams getting that four-year, $104 million contract with the Patriots, is it too much to expect Robinson – a 4th-round pick – to play a significant role? We’ll see. But he’s 24 years old and when you’re an older rookie you don’t get the luxury of a red-shirt season. You better contribute now. Robinson has a lot going for him. Obviously a ton of experience in the Big Ten, great size at 6-foot-6, 310 pounds, some positional versatility and impressive athleticism. Has a long way to go to be a contributor, but unless Howie Roseman goes out and signs someone, he’s got to be the No. 4 guy on the depth chart.
8B. Williams’ contract averages $26 million per year. The most Tom Brady ever averaged on a contract with the Patriots was $25 million per year.
9A. From 1991 through 1994, the Eagles selected seven defensive players in the first three rounds of the draft. Those seven players started a total of nine games in an Eagles uniform: Derrick Frazier (four), Eric Zomalt (three), Leonard Renfro (two), Tommy Jeter (none), Mike Reid (none), Bruce Walker (none) and Jesse Campbell (none). Campbell and Walker, both 2nd-round picks, never played a snap for the Eagles. Of that group, only Campbell had anything resembling an NFL career, playing seven years with the Giants and Washington.
9B. That’s just insane.
9C. That might be the worst stretch of defensive drafting in NFL history.
9D. See 9B.
10. The only NFL linebacker with more than one 4th-quarter pick-6’s since 2011? How about that Alex Singleton. The undrafted linebacker picked off one-time Eagle Nick Mullens and returned it 30 yards for a TD in the Eagles’ 25-20 win over the 49ers at Levi’s Stadium in October of 2020, then picked off Mike Glennon in the Eagles’ 34-10 win over the Giants in December 2021 at the Linc. Singleton is also one of only three undrafted LBs ever with a pick-6 in consecutive seasons. Shelton Quarles of the Bucs had a 98-yarder off Brett Favre in 2001 and a 25-yarder off Akili Smith in 2002, and London Fletcher of the Bills had pick-6’s off Favre in 2006 and Kurt Warner in 2007. Now you know.
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