Seahawks rumors: A trade for Zach Ertz should be a no go

The Eagles are reportedly wanting to trade tight end Zach Ertz. The Seahawks may be interested but they shouldn’t be. I do not think Ertz is a bad player but he also was a better fit in Philadelphia than he would be in Seattle. Seattle isn’t going to target Ertz 106 times or more just as the Eagles did between 2015 and 2019, for instance.

That’s a lot of targets and a lot of hits to the body for a tight end. This could be one reason that Ertz’s production fell in 2020. He had the worst year of his career this past season.

Plus, Ertz had a career-low in catching only 50 percent of his targets this year. His previous low was 63.2 percent in his rookie year. Ertz had the fewest receiving yards of his career too with 335. This was 134 yards fewer than any other season.

Other career-lows for Ertz in 2020? Touchdown receptions (1), catches that resulted in a first down (16), yards-per-target (4.7) and so on. Ertz also played just 11 games, three fewer games than in any other season.

Seahawks shouldn’t trade for Zach Ertz

OK, I get it. One should not judge a player by his most recent or his worst season. But the fact is, the Seahawks need a lot of other stuff besides tight end. Sure, Seattle lost Greg Olsen to retirement after the season ended and Jacob Hollister isn’t a good blocker and too expensive to simply keep around because he can catch 40 passes in a season. But Seattle is up against the salary cap and spending cap space on Ertz and the $8.2 million he is owed this year.

Singing Ertz would be a massive mistake because paying Ertz takes away money from positions of greater need, like left guard and cornerback and defensive line. Likely Seattle is just kicking the tires on what it would take to get Ertz. Anything more should lead to some head-scratching among 12s.