What role will Zach Ertz play for the Lions? Highlights, stats of TE's 11-year career

Eleven-year NFL veteran and tight end Zach Ertz has signed with a new team.

The Detroit Lions signed Ertz to their practice squad on Monday, and he could be elevated to the active roster before the NFC championship game.

The former Arizona Cardinals and Philadelphia Eagles tight end injured his quad in Week 7 of the regular season and requested a release from the team in late November. Ertz had been a free agent since then.

Detroit's decision to sign him comes after backup tight end Brock Wright broke his forearm during the Lions' divisional round win over the Buccaneers. Behind Wright on the current depth chart is Anthony Firkser, who played just two offensive snaps all season.

Now, on his third team in three years, the 33-year-old Ertz won't displace star rookie tight end Sam LaPorta as the starter. Instead, he will likely fill in as a backup and add a more reliable, veteran presence with real playoff (and Super Bowl) experience to the Lions' offense.

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Zach Ertz career history

Prior to his 28-game stint with the Cardinals, Ertz played nine years for the Philadelphia Eagles, where he earned three straight Pro Bowl nods from 2017-2019 and won a Super Bowl after the 2017 season.

Over the course of his first seven seasons in the NFL, the Stanford product grew into one of the league's most prominent tight ends. During his three-season run of Pro Bowl nods, he tallied 2,903 yards on 278 catches (10.4 average yards per catch) with 22 touchdowns.

To this day, Ertz holds the NFL record for single-season receptions by a tight end with the 116 catches he had in 2018. He's also remained the Eagles' franchise leader for receptions in a single game, with 15 in a 2014 game. When Philadelphia won Super Bowl 52, it was in part thanks to a heroic touchdown dive from Ertz in the game's final minutes.

The Eagles traded Ertz to the Cardinals in 2021, and he quickly became a top target for Arizona, accumulating 81 of them with 56 catches, 574 yards and three touchdowns in 11 games down the stretch. He finished the season with the Cardinals' third-highest receiving yards total.

Though he started all 28 games he played for Arizona, injuries held him back from better production over the last two years. Ertz had a season-ending knee injury in Week 10 of 2022 and had the aforementioned quad injury that shut him down earlier this season. As second-year tight end Trey McBride blossomed into a solid pass-catcher in Ertz's absence this year, the writing was on the wall.

Zach Ertz career highlights

At his peak, Ertz was one of the NFL's most dominating tight ends. Even as he's aged, he's proven to be a reliable target in the red zone and a guy that won't go down easily against would-be tacklers.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Zach Ertz: Tight end is newest Detroit Lions player, what's his role?