New Orleans Saints should have traded for Zach Ertz

The Zach Ertz trade rumors have been going on since this offseason and it finally came to an end Friday morning when the Eagles sent him to Arizona in exchange for cornerback Tay Gowan and a 2022 fifth-rounder. Why couldn’t the New Orleans Saints have made this deal?

NOLA is not getting much out of their tight ends at the moment, as both Juwan Johnson and Adam Trautman each have 64 yards receiving. The weapons in New Orleans haven’t done much in general and fans are counting down the minutes to when Michael Thomas can return.

Seeing what Arizona gave up to land Ertz makes it even more frustrating that the Saints couldn’t acquire the long-time Eagles tight end. Gowan is a sixth-round rookie who has yet to play a game in the pros and parting with a fifth-round pick isn’t as daunting as losing a Day 1 or 2 pick. This is certainly something New Orleans could have afforded.

Why didn’t the New Orleans Saints trade for Zach Ertz?

Perhaps the Saints feel like Johnson and Trautman are the answers at the position or maybe they have something else up their sleeve. It’s worth noting that Ertz isn’t the same guy he was a few years ago and maybe that spooked NOLA off from giving up too much from him but this was something they easily could have swung.

To this point, the tight ends in the Big Easy haven’t done much of anything. Johnson has three touchdowns but hasn’t made much of an impact in any other department. Meanwhile, the majority of Trautman’s yards came from one catch last week in D.C.

Ertz might not have been the answer to helping this offense completely but he’d have given this team an immediate option at TE1. He’s only three years removed from totaling over 1,100 yards and over 100 receptions after all.

The Cardinals landed Ertz instead though and they needed him desperately considering they lost their starting tight end to an injury last week.

What’s done is done but it sure would have been great to see Ertz in the black and gold.