At long last, Rocky Balboa has come back home. Again.
The city’s famed statue of the Italian Stallion was installed atop the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s iconic steps Wednesday. Its installation marks the most visible step yet in getting the fictional boxer’s monument into what has been billed as its permanent place.
Creative Philadelphia, the city arts office behind the statue’s move, said the monument was affixed to its pedestal at the top of the steps about 11:30 a.m. Additional cleanup work was slated to take place Thursday, and barricades around the statue were to be removed Friday, marking the installation’s completion.
After that, no additional work is scheduled, the office said.
The statue’s move, which officially began on Sept. 11, caps a monthslong series of monumental moves at the Art Museum. Since 2006, it sat at the bottom of the institution’s steps, and was then housed inside the museum for the exhibit “Rising Up: Rocky and the Making of Monuments” starting in March.
The original statue, which Stallone commissioned for Rocky III, has long been a controversial piece of public art in the city. It arrived in town in 1981, and has since been moved about a half dozen times — including previous stints at the top of the steps.
Visitors at the newly installed Rocky statue on the Art Museum steps.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
Now, the statue stands about 14 feet back from the edge of the top step, adjacent to where Rocky’s shoe prints are embedded into a walkway.
Last fall, an Inquirer survey found that 46% of respondents believed there should not be a Rocky statue at the top of the steps. About 20% of respondents said there should not be a Rocky statue in the city’s quiver of monuments at all.
That perspective has been present among Philadelphians since the statue arrived more than four decades ago, when some local officials referred to it as “unnecessarily strident.” At least one Inquirer columnist called it a “monument to schlock, chutzpah, and mediocrity” following its debut.
Since then, debates over its merits — as well as whether it is art or merely an iconic structure — have cropped up periodically. Still, in January, the Art Commission voted to approve a plan for the statue’s installation at the top of the steps.
“We are pleased that after months of planning, the city’s Rocky statue is permanently installed at the top of the Philadelphia Museum of Art steps, where it was first unveiled in 1982,” public art director Marguerite Anglin said in a statement. “It now stands in conversation with the Joe Frazier statue, the real life Philadelphia boxer who inspired the Rocky story.”
A former Skippack Township supervisor had been expected to plead guilty Wednesday to molesting a boy in his care, admitting to nearly a decade of abuse.
But at the last moment, Nicholas Fountain rejected the offer extended to him by prosecutors and chose instead to take the case to trial.
Fountain, 39, is charged with 10 counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, as well as indecent assault and related crimes. The deal he negotiated with prosecutors would have allowed him to plead guilty to four counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse in exchange for a maximum sentence of 20 to 50 years in state prison.
Instead, Fountain opted to proceed to trial on all charges, including 10 counts that each carry a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison upon conviction.
Fountain, who owns two daycare centers — Magnolia Enrichment Center in Skippack and Magnolia Children’s Academy in Gilbertsville — resigned from the board shortly after his arrest last year.
His attorneys, Matthew Brittenburg and Andrew Levin, declined to comment after Wednesday’s hearing.
The victim, now an adult, told police Fountain sexually abused him beginning when he was 9 years old and continuing until he was 16, according to the affidavit of probable cause for his arrest.
The abuse began in 2016, he said, and started when he and Fountain were wrestling and Fountain asked him to take off his shirt and, eventually, all of his clothing.
During subsequent assaults, he said, Fountain groped him, showed him pornography, and performed a sex act on him. Fountain later attempted to initiate other sexual contact, he said, but he refused.
Prosecutors learned of the abuse last year in an unrelated investigation by law enforcement in Maryland.
Authorities there charged Fountain with sexual solicitation of a minor and child pornography after they said he solicited nude photos from an undercover officer posing as a teenage boy on Reddit, and sent nude photos of himself in return.
In their conversations, Fountain identified himself to the undercover officer as a married man, and provided a picture of himself.
Fountain also sent the officer graphic descriptions of sex acts he wanted to engage in with someone he believed to be a teenage boy, the documents said.
The officer reviewed Fountain’s history of posting on Reddit, and wrote that the “posts all encompassed sexual content and all revolved around sex acts or looking for sex acts between older men/daddies and younger boys.”
That case is ongoing and will be prosecuted after his case in Montgomery County concludes, according to a spokesperson from the Harford County State’s Attorney’s Office.
During the course of the Maryland investigation, Pennsylvania State Police troopers interviewed people close to Fountain because of the daycare centers he owns.
No allegations of wrongdoing connected to the daycare centers emerged from that inquiry, investigators said, but through those interviews, they identified the victim in the Montgomery County case.
Yes, he’s an amazing talent. Yes, he already has enough marketing deals to make players twice his age blush, including one with Adidas that has set him up with superstars like Lionel Messi and Trinity Rodman.
No, those moments happened because of what got him on the field in the first place. Interim Union manager Ryan Richter described that part perfectly after the big win in San Diego earlier this month, when Sullivan’s backheel goal exploded online.
“He trains like an animal every single day,” Richter said. “His outstanding quality is the mentality that he has, and the way that he approaches every game and every day, and that’s what pushes him to get better and better.”
A few minutes later, Sullivan was told of those words, and was asked what it meant to hear them.
“I always appreciate when stuff like that’s acknowledged, so thank you to him,” he said. “I think that’s just sort of, like, my DNA in a way. I think it’s sort of how I’m wired. But always great to have people like him acknowledge it.”
There are moments when Sullivan comes across as an already-polished product of three generations of Philadelphia soccer royalty. But there are also still moments where you see the rawness of a 16-year-old, and this was one.
Comparisons to Freddy Adu aren’t fair
If Sullivan plays in any of the U.S. team’s four upcoming friendlies, he’ll become the youngest senior men’s national team player since Freddy Adu in 2006.
Around the soccer world, Sullivan gets compared to other young phenoms, such as Arsenal and England’s Max Dowman and Spain and Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal. (Not for nothing did Adidas, which markets all three of them, recently bring Sullivan and Dowman together for a photo shoot where Sullivan had one of the Union’s new third jerseys.)
📲 Cavan Sullivan (16) on Instagram, with Max Dowman (16). 🤝
⚠️ Sullivan, who plays for Philadelphia Union in MLS, will join Manchester City when he turns 18. 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/755pojRdKD
But for some people in this country, the most significant comparison goes in a less optimistic direction: to Adu.
In 2004, Adu arrived on the scene as a 14-year-old already crowned as destined to be the greatest American men’s player of all time. He took the field with D.C. United back then carrying the hopes of MLS at a time when it was desperate for any kind of recognition.
The recognition came, including a TV ad featuring Adu and Pelé. But the on-field accomplishments didn’t. Adu fell far short of his potential, despite seemingly countless opportunities over a 17-year career.
Looking back, we can now see why. It wasn’t just that he was swallowed up by the hype. It’s that so much of the infrastructure that has helped Sullivan grow didn’t exist in Adu’s teenage years.
MLS teams didn’t have youth academies back then, from the Union’s unparalleled scale — to frankly any scale. Fans might think about the first-team staff and sometimes the reserve-team coaches, but the dozens of youth team coaches and high school teachers that fill the club’s Chester complex who work outside the spotlight are immeasurable.
Adu didn’t have any of that when he grew up. He went straight into the first team at 14, and that was it. MLS could barely even accommodate a legal minor in some facilities back then, and its reserve league didn’t start until a year after Adu’s pro debut.
The Union reserve team’s facilities at the club’s training complex in Chester.Alejandro A. Alvarez / Staff Photographer
Now the league knows what it’s doing, with systems in place to accommodate what has become a years-long pipeline of elite young talent. Sullivan is just one example, and quite a few of them have made the current U.S. roster.
Few players know this more than one of the national team’s best, Tyler Adams. He rose through Red Bull New York’s youth and pro ranks, moved to Europe after three years in MLS, and now flies the flag for Americans in the English Premier League.
“Prospect is a great word, but they’re doing it at a high level right now,” he said. “And then for me, as a product of MLS and a kid that came through MLS, you have to respect the league and the level that they’re playing at, at such a young age, because you’re competing against grown men. … You just have to do things in the right order, and we’re giving them the best opportunity to do that now.”
Tyler Adams (center) at work during Wednesday’s U.S. men’s soccer team practice at the national training center in suburban Atlanta.Jonathan Tannenwald
Confident? Yes. Cocky? No.
There’s one more point to make about Sullivan. Outsiders call him cocky, and he can be: from stepover dribbles to the flashy outfits he wears at Subaru Park on game days. But what athlete doesn’t have an ego?
You have to have one to become elite in sports, whether Bryce Harper or LeBron James or Carli Lloyd.
Of course, Sullivan hasn’t yet achieved what those three have, and whether he will remains to be seen. But he has an outstanding support system that keeps him in check at the right times, from his family at home, including his older brother and teammate, Quinn Sullivan, to team captain Alejandro Bedoya, and Ryan Richter in the Union locker room. You can be sure they all got him ready for this week as best they could.
Beyond that, we can’t know how this Union season will end up, with a bunch of tough games coming next month; and it’s impossible to know what will happen when Cavan joins Manchester City at the end of next year.
Will he actually play for the English giant, or get loaned out repeatedly — the fate that past Americans suffered in England, including Downingtown’s Zack Steffen at City and Media’s Auston Trusty at Arsenal?
Zack Steffen played just 21 games for Manchester City in 4 1/2 years on the English Premier League giant’s books.Ian Walton
It’s easy to spend time and energy fretting about those questions. Right now, though, can be a moment to put them aside.
Just as Union fans have allowed themselves to simply enjoy the team’s renaissance, they can sit back and enjoy this national team window for Sullivan, Neil Pierre, and Frankie Westfield. The games are friendlies, so results matter less than seeing how the players handle their first steps on the senior national team stage.
The last word goes to Adams, since he delivered on this subject as well as he does with so many things.
“If anybody remembers me when I was 16, 17 years old, I came in and I wasn’t afraid to step on people’s toes, but I was very keen on doing the work and making sure that I could earn the respect of the older players,” he said. “That’s always super-important as you try to build this group out. We have a lot of bright talent here, but it’s important that we all work hard and help get the best growth out of all of them.”
Neil Pierre (second from left) working with former Union centerback Auston Trusty (left) and other players at Wednesday’s U.S. practice. Jonathan Tannenwald
Efforts by Democrats led by George E. Norcross III to unseat a dissident faction from control of the Cherry Hill Democratic Committee will not be considered by New Jersey’s highest court.
The New Jersey Supreme Court on Sept. 16 denied a petition for certification filed by the Camden County Democratic Committee and committee chairman and State Sen. James Beach that would have challenged a state appellate court decision in April that allowed the South Jersey Progressive Democrats to name members of the committee.
Three Cherry Hill residents who are members of the South Jersey Progressive Democrats won the June 2025 primary, defeating the Norcross group, which ran with names for all 74 seats on the ballot. Voters voted once, either for the progressives or the Norcross group.
After their loss, the Camden County Democrats sued, challenging the progressives’ right to fill the 71 vacancies with members other than those who were listed in the losing group on the ballot.
Voters elected the progressives over the Norcross group by a vote of 5,547 to 3,350, or 62% of the votes cast.
At stake is control of the powerful Democratic Party in Cherry Hill, including candidate selection and choosing citizens to fill elected offices when they become open between elections. The Cherry Hill unit is also the largest single faction on the 522-member Camden County committee, which has even more power.
“Having read the appeals panel decision, I had complete confidence that the New Jersey Supreme Court would deny certification in our case, ending the Camden County Democratic Committee’s colossal waste of donors’ money attempting to overturn the will of Cherry Hill voters,” one of the three winners, Rena Margulis, said in an email on Wednesday. The other two winners were David Stahl and Susan Druckenbrod.
Margulis said that as of early September, the group has 47 Cherry Hill Democratic Committee members. She said Cherry Hill residents are being recruited to run in the Democratic primary next June.
A call to Camden County Democratic Party headquarters for comment on the decision was not returned.
70and73.com is a hyperlocal news site focused on South Jersey, including the communities of Cherry Hill, Evesham, Mount Laurel, Voorhees, Medford, Medford Lakes, and Moorestown.
The move comes as PHS prepares to mark its 200th anniversary next year.
PHS’s roughly 100 office-based employees have worked on a hybrid schedule since 2022, president Matt Rader said. The in-person cadence ranges from a couple days a week to a couple times a month, he said.
That will change starting in the spring at PHS’s new office at 1900 Market St., where the organization signed a 16-year lease. Rader said employees would be required to come into the office three days a week.
In its current building at 100 N. 20th St., PHS leases 31,000 square feet, subleasing two-thirds of that space to another tenant, Big Brothers Big Sisters. Its workforce is split into two suites on different floors. The new location, at the site of the former Philadelphia Stock Exchange building, is a single space spanning 18,000 square feet.
“Our current office space that we’re occupying is quite small because we’ve been on this largely hybrid model, and we wanted to move into a situation where we could have the team comfortably in-office three days a week and have everybody in one space,” Rader said.
Matt Rader, president of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, in 2024.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
“PHS, despite being two centuries old, has the nimbleness of a start-up,” he said. “We’ve been in a significant chapter of growth, particularly in our neighborhood work. We do a lot of work around tree planting, community gardening, vacant land greening, small-business development, and job training across the city and region, and that work has grown significantly since 2019.”
Staying in Center City was an easy decision, Rader said.
“We believe very much in Center City,” he said. “We work in more than 230 city and suburban neighborhoods. So our PHS community of supporters, volunteers, staff is kind of everywhere.”
That means easy access to public transit is important, Rader said.
As for its 200th anniversary, PHS plans to double down on its neighborhood greening work, invest more in the annual Flower Show, and launch a new vision, Rader said: “Every person, every place, gardening for the greater good.”
“Our job is to scale up the places and people involved in using gardening to improve the health and well-being of the region, and we see this new headquarters office space as a great first step on that journey,” he said.
Radnor commissioners in July advanced a proposal to purchase the former office at 405 W. Wayne Ave. and convert the building into a local courthouse.
Radnor’s magisterial districtcourt — which typically handles preliminary criminal hearings, traffic and local ordinance violations, and small civil suits — has been located in Newtown Square for three years as Radnor has been unable to find a home for it in the township.
At a series of public meetings in recent weeks, residents pushed back against the West Wayne Avenue proposal, raising concerns that the courthouse would bring traffic and parking issues to the area and put individuals accused of crimes in proximity to the children who live and play in the neighborhood.
The township dropped the plan to purchase the veterinarian’s office earlier this month, citing resident concerns and a “thorough review of the site and vital feedback.”
With that site off the table, Commissioner Jack Larkin told residents during a Tuesday information session that the township is continuing to look, but has found no other suitable options for a local courthouse, leaving questions regarding whether the court will be able to find a home in Radnor at all.
Locating a new space for the court has been made difficult by a series of parameters from Delaware County and the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts, Larkin said, including ADA accessibility, size, and parking. Delaware County, which is responsible for footing the bill for the building, has told Radnor it can pay between $20 and $30 per square foot for the space, a rate that is hard to come by in the township, Larkin said.
On top of the guidelines from the state and county, Larkin said, residents have made clear they do not want a court near a residential neighborhood, a needle that is difficult to thread in Radnor, he said,where many commercial districts abut residential areas.
At Tuesday’s meeting, a group of around 20 residents rebuked commissioners for what they described as poor planning and a lack of communication around the West Wayne Avenue acquisition proposal. Some said a lack of social media and email notification about the process made community members feel the commissioners were “sneaky.” One attendee said the court relocation effort is a “pet project” that residents have not asked for.Others rejected Larkin’s justification for why the court needs to move into Radnor at all.
Larkin, an attorney, has argued repeatedly that it is important for Radnor residents to elect their own local judge rather than be split between other districts, and that bringing the courthouse home will signal to Pennsylvania that Radnor cares about retaining its own judge come the state’s decennial court district realignment process.
“I just generally think that it’s good to have your judge in the community that he’s judging. That’s the way the system is supposed to work. The [magisterial district judge] is supposed to be in the magisterial district where he lives, where he works,” Larkin said.
Until three years ago, Radnor’s district court cases were split between Marple and Newtown Townships.
In response to questions about whether Radnor’s district courthouse being located outside the township’s bounds would affect the judicial realignment process, Stacey Witalec, director of communications for the Pennsylvania Judicial System, said “there are several courts within Delaware County which are co-located” and pointed to the court reestablishment procedures outlined in Pennsylvania statute.
This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.
President Donald Trump’s administration cannot demand that Philadelphia officials assist his deportation agenda and enforce federal immigration law, the city told a judge Tuesday.
Attorneys for the city and local officials asked U.S. District Judge Chad F. Kenney to toss out the Department of Justice’s challenge to an ordinance that prohibits Philadelphia agencies and employees from honoring immigration detainers.
“The federal government cannot conscript City employees as its agents, including by ordering them to keep an individual in custody, solely to assist with federal immigration enforcement,” the city’s motion said.
The Trump administration’s position in the case runs afoul of the Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which prevents the federal government from commandeering state and local governments to enforce federal laws, the city said.
And the Justice Department cannot point to any federal law “mandating” state and local officials assist with immigration enforcement, said the filing on behalf of Mayor Cherelle L. Parker, former City Solicitor Renee Garcia, and District Attorney Larry Krasner.
The city declined to comment on the ongoing litigation. Krasner and the Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
That decision should have come as no surprise to Parker’s administration. Parker allowed the bill to become law without her signature, following Garcia’s advice that signing the measure “would send an inaccurate signal to the public that the Administration can legally and practically enforce” its provisions.
The Justice Department expanded its lawsuit in August to include a challenge to the bill that prohibits honoring immigration detainers, requests by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that a local law enforcement agency keep a person in custody long enough to be handed over to federal agents.
Parker did sign that legislation, which codified a long-standing city practice, along with five other “ICE Out” bills.
The ordinance makes it illegal for a city agency or employee to comply with a detainer by keeping people otherwise eligible for release in custody because of an immigration detainer, an administrative warrant, or suspicion that they violated immigration law.
The amended complaint does not mention Philadelphia’s history of not cooperating with ICE detainers. But with the local law, the city “foreclosed” the prospect of using the mechanism to deport people who were arrested, the suit says.
The Jenkintown School District is cancelingthe rest ofits varsity football season over safety concerns from low participation, officials announced this week.
The high school team in Montgomery County’s smallest school district had played two games so far this season and was set to play Lower Moreland on Friday.
There were not enough players on the team, nor enough active participation, to safely play a whole season, high school principal Thomas Roller and athletic director Aubrie Breisblatt wrote in a letter to the school community Tuesday, and the team had already been forced to forfeit games.
“Continuing to compete under these circumstances would place significant physical demands on a limited number of players,” the school leaders wrote, adding that the decision had come at the head coach’s recommendation.
While the team will not play any more games this year, the program will continue to hold practices, and officials hope to rebuild the program in the future.
“Sports participation, especially at a school as small as Jenkintown, ebbs and flows over time depending on students’ interests,” school board president Carolyn Riley wrote in a text Wednesday.
”We remain very supportive of our students committed to playing football.”
Ron Heller stepped out of the shower naked and took a boxing stance. Jerome Brown stood across from him in full pads. Mike Golic and the rest of the Eagles defensive line at the time dropped their helmets as offensive linemen began filing out of the showers.
After a training camp practice filled with fights, Golic thought the two lines might be about to have another.
Instead, everyone started laughing.
Golic revisited the locker room standoff Tuesday on ESPN’s This Is Football, recounting the practice that led to it and a confrontation involving Brown that had escalated to talk of guns.
During one-on-one pass-rushing drills, offensive lineman Ron Solt and Brown led a series of fights. But it was a fight “not just between the two players, but through the whole O-line and D-line,” Golic said, adding that it happened after six or seven consecutive plays.
According to Golic, Solt said he would go to his car for a gun. Brown replied, as Golic remembered it, “I’m going to beat you to my car and get my gun.” Neither player retrieved a weapon, Golic said, but the drill had spun out of control.
“You didn’t get a whole lot done in practice when you’re fighting that much,” Golic said.
The Eagles stopped the one-on-one session and moved to a two-minute drill, but another fight disrupted everyone’s work. After practice, the defensive linemen stayed on the field for extra drills while the offense headed inside.
Beloved Eagles defensive end Jerome Brown was one of the subjects in a wild story told this week by former Eagles teammate Mike Golic.
At West Chester University, where the Eagles held camp, the route to the defensive locker room passed the showers. Golic and his teammates were walking in still wearing their uniforms when Heller emerged. Heller had faced Golic when they played for Penn State and Notre Dame, respectively. Golic remembered him as one of the toughest opponents he had faced.
Heller stopped directly in front of Brown. In Golic’s telling, he tried to put the practice dispute behind them: “Hey, Jerome. All good. Practice, whatever.” Brown answered with expletives and made it clear he was still angry. Heller squared up as more offensive linemen came out of the showers.
“It was like West Side Story, but one group was naked,” Golic said.
Golic had considered what he might do if the groups fought.
“I would’ve used my cleats in a very, very bad way against a naked man,” he said.
No one got that far. The sight of one line in pads facing another fresh from the showers broke the tension. Golic said the players laughed, the defensive linemen went to their lockers, and the offensive linemen finished showering.
The stories offered a glimpse of the practices over which Buddy Ryan presided in Philadelphia. Ryan encouraged fighting, according to Golic, who joined the Eagles in 1987 partly because he wanted to play for a coach known for his defense. The roster included Reggie White, Clyde Simmons, and Brown up front; Seth Joyner at linebacker; and Eric Allen in the secondary.
According to Golic, former Eagles coach Buddy Ryan (center) didn’t mind a scuffle every now and again.
Ryan later called a defensive front featuring White, Simmons, Brown, Mike Pitts, and Golic the best he had coached. He previously coordinated the Chicago Bears’ celebrated 1985 defense. His Eagles reached the playoffs three straight seasons from 1988 through 1990, though they never won a postseason game under him.
The defense continued to dominate after Ryan’s tenure ended. In 1991, the Eagles allowed the fewest total yards in the NFL. Brown earned the second of his two first-team All-Pro selections. He died in a car crash in June 1992 at age 27, and the Eagles later retired his No. 99 jersey.
Golic has told the shower story before. But on Tuesday, he also recalled the threat-filled fight between Solt and Brown that preceded it. That day’s work ended in a locker room full of players laughing at how close they had come to fighting again.
Sean Mannion knows his offense is still a work in progress.
There have been positive signs, no doubt — like the team’s strong third-down conversion rate (53%) — but their track record in one particular area ranks near the bottom of the league:
Early downs.
According to Sportradar, the Eagles have an offensive success rate of 37% on first and second downs, which ranks last in the NFL. They’ve converted a first down on first down just one time and they’re tied for the most negative plays on offense through two weeks.
So, what gives? Mannion tried to explain this bizarre early- vs. late-down stat discrepancy during his Wednesday news conference.
“There’s always going to be things to clean up each week,” the first-year offensive coordinator said. “We’re really close on a lot of our things on first and second down. Just some fundamental things to clean up, corrections to make. We’re always looking as a staff to put everyone in the best possible position to succeed. Not to make it coachspeak or anything like that, but I think we’re really close there.”
Improvement in the run game would be a big first step. Eagles running backs averaged just 3.7 yards per carry in the first two weeks. They averaged 2.8 yards per carry in the last-minute win at Tennessee last Sunday.
Coach Nick Sirianni didn’t offer much of an update Monday on Saquon Barkley, who missed the majority of the first half against the Titans, but he did finish the game so that could bode well for his Week 3 status. What does Mannion think of the current state of the run game?
“We’re close,” he said. “A few little things fundamentally, just some of the smaller details that, if we attack those, it’ll really come to life for us. But the guys are bought in. I think what we’re doing, being able to stay on schedule on first and second down, allows you to call more runs. You never know when those are about to pop … I feel that, moving forward, those are going to start to break through.”
Sean Mannion lauded Zach Ertz’s skills as a pass catcher. YONG KIM / Staff Photographer
What will Ertz’s role be?
The Eagles signed tight end Zach Ertz — who spent the first eight-plus years of his career in Philadelphia — to their practice squad Tuesday. The franchise legend will help fill the void left by Dallas Goedert, who is likely out several weeks due to a sprained MCL.
The offense Mannion runs leans heavily on tight ends. So how, exactly, does he plan on using the 35-year-old Ertz?
“He’s a very comfortable pass catcher,” Mannion said. “He’s had a really strong track record in that area. When you look at the tight end group, it’s really about the composite of everyone’s skill sets together. It’s what makes that position specifically unique — it’s about complementary skill sets and how they play off one another… We’ll use the week to evaluate and see what Zach’s role looks like.”
Video: Offensive coordinator Sean Mannion on how Zach Ertz will fit into the Eagles’ offense
With second-round pick Eli Stowers (quad/hamstring) and Grant Calcaterra (back) on injured reserve, Johnny Mundt and E.J. Jenkins are the only healthy tight ends on the Eagles roster. They’re both blocking tight ends. That could mean targets are coming Ertz’s way (he’s only 11 receptions shy of breaking Harold Carmichael’s franchise record of 589).
“We’ll use this practice week and see what it looks like moving forward with us,” Mannion said. “Excited to add him. I know [we’re] a little dinged up at the position… But Zach has a lot of history with the organization. Excited to bring him in and use the week to see what his role may or may not look like.”
