Tight End

Zach Ertz

No. 86 · 14th season

Ertz got cleared. He told you he wasn't done.

He said it in April, when it would have been easy not to: a torn ACL was not going to be how his career ended. That's a hard thing to say out loud, because saying it makes it real, and not making it back makes it public.

Ertz has spent years as one of the more reliable tight ends in the league — a player teammates lean on and defenses account for. Then came the injury, the kind that ends careers quietly if you let it. He didn't let it.

Now he's been cleared for football activities.That's the first real step from 'I want to come back' to 'I might actually come back.' That's the first real step from "I want to come back" to "I might actually come back." No team yet, no deal announced — just a body that has done the work and a door that is open again.

What he does with that door is the question. He's a free agent, which means nothing is guaranteed and everything is possible in the same breath. Someone has to believe in him. He already does.

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