10 Stats That Put Zach Ertz's Historic Season in Perspective

Zach Ertz is having a historic season, and it has a chance to be an unprecedented season.

With five games left in the Eagles' season, the sixth-year tight end has 84 catches for 895 yards and six touchdowns.

He's on pace for 122 catches, 1,301 yards and eight touchdowns.

What does that mean? Let's take a look!

1. 100 catches in a season
Ertz needs just 16 catches the last five games to become the fourth tight end in NFL history with 100 catches in a season. He needs 27 catches the next five weeks - 5.4 per game - to break Jason Witten's record of 110 catches in a season by a tight end. Here are the top seasons by tight ends

110 … Jason Witten, 2012
102 … Tony Gonzalez, 2004
100 … Dallas Clark, 2009
99 … Tony Gonzalez, 2007
99 … Jimmy Graham, 2011
96 … Ben Coates, 1994
96 … Tony Gonzalez, 2008
96 … Jason Witten, 2007

2. First ever with 1,000 yards
Ertz needs 105 yards to become the first Eagles tight end ever with 1,000 yards in a season and the first Eagle since Jeremy Maclin in 2014. Only seven tight ends have ever had 1,200 yards in a season. Ertz needs to average 61 yards to reach 1,200:

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1,327 … Rob Gronkowski, 2011
1,310 … Jimmy Graham, 2011
1,290 … Kellen Winslow Sr., 1980
1,258 … Tony Gonzalez, 2004
1,247 … Todd Christensen, 1983
1,215 … Jimmy Graham, 2013
1,203 … Tony Gonzalez, 2000

3. Chasing Harold
Ertz already has the fourth-most catches in Eagles history and needs 22 to pass Brian Westbrook and move into third place. He's only 184 behind Eagles record holder Harold Carmichael, who caught 589 passes. Over the last four years, Ertz has averaged 5.8 catches per game, so if he stays healthy, at his current rate, he would pass Carmichael in Week 11 of the 2020 season.

Most catches in Eagles history
589 … Harold Carmichael [180 games]
452 … Pete Retzlaff [132]
426 … Brian Westbrook [107]
405 … Zach Ertz [86]
398 … Brent Celek [175]
373 … Pete Pihos [107]
371 … Keith Byars [105]
363 … Mike Quick [101]
356 … DeSean Jackson [87]

4. Elite company 
Ertz's 84 catches are ninth-most in NFL history by any player after 11 games and most ever by a tight end.

Most catches after 11 games
100 … Marvin Harrison, 2002
94 … Julio Jones, 2015
93 … Adam Thielen, 2018
88 … Antonio Brown, 2014
88 … Cris Carter, 1994
86 … Michael Thomas, 2018
85 … Antonio Brown, 2015
85 … Wes Welker, 2009
84 … Zach Ertz, 2018
84 … Julio Jones, 2018
84 … Cris Carter, 1995



5. Six unprecedented years
Ertz already has the third-most catches by a tight end in his first six seasons and needs just 30 catches to have the most receptions in history by a tight end in his first six years.

434 … Jimmy Graham
429 … Jason Witten
405 … Zach Ertz
400 … Antonio Gates
399 … Kellen Winslow Sr.
397 … Tony Gonzalez
380 … Rob Gronkowski
374 … Travis Kelce
371 … Jeremy Shockey
362 … Kellen Winslow Jr.

6. Consecutive 70-catch seasons
Ertz is the first player in Eagles history with four straight 70-catch seasons. Only three other players had two straight - Brian Westbrook, Jordan Matthews and Irving Fryar. Ertz is only the seventh tight end with four straight seasons with 70 catches and 800 yards. The others are Witten and Gonzalez (7), Christensen, Gates, Graham and Greg Olsen (4).

7. Single-season record
Ertz already has the sixth-most catches in Eagles history and needs only seven catches to break Westbrook's franchise record of 90 receptions in a season, set in 2007.

Here's a list of all the Eagles with 80 catches in a season:
90 … Brian Westbrook, 2007
88 … Irving Fryar, 1996
86 … Irving Fryar, 1997
85 … Jordan Matthews, 2015
85 … Jeremy Maclin, 2014
84 … Zach Ertz, 2018
82 … DeSean Jackson, 2013
81 … Keith Byars, 1990
81 … Keith Jackson, 1988        

8. Fastest to 400 catches
Ertz on Sunday became the fourth-fastest tight end to 400 career catches, doing it in 86 games.

Here are the fastest tight ends to 400 receptions:
72 games … Kellen Winslow Sr.
84 … Jimmy Graham
85 … Kellen Winslow Jr.
86 … Zach Ertz
86 … Rob Gronkowski
90 … Jason Witten

9. Model of consistency
Ertz is only the 12th tight end in history with five career 700-yard seasons and one of only six tight ends ever with five 700-yard seasons in a row (Witten 12, Gonzalez 11, Gates 8, Shannon Sharpe 6, Travis Kelce 5).

10. Climbing the all-time charts
Ertz currently ranks 39th in NFL history in career receptions by a tight end. But if he continues at his current pace, he'll be 12th by the end of next year. 

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