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Cardinals release former Eagles tight end Zach Ertz

Ertz will be put on waivers and wants to play for a contender.

Arizona Cardinals tight end Zach Ertz (left) with former teammate Dallas Goedert of the Eagles after a game on Oct. 9, 2022.
Arizona Cardinals tight end Zach Ertz (left) with former teammate Dallas Goedert of the Eagles after a game on Oct. 9, 2022.Read moreHeather Khalifa / Staff Photographer

The Arizona Cardinals announced that they released tight end Zach Ertz on Thursday.

Ertz and the Cardinals mutually parted ways. He has interest in playing for a Super Bowl contender, according to a report from his former Cardinals teammate J.J. Watt. But Ertz does not have full control over his fate.

Because Ertz was released after the trade deadline, he needs to pass through waivers in order to become a free agent. Before the trade deadline, Ertz would have qualified as a vested veteran since he has more than four years of NFL service time, which would have allowed him to avoid waivers and become a free agent, like Eagles free-agent target Shaquille Leonard.

Some teams may respect Ertz’s desire to become a free agent and choose not to claim him, but that’s not always how things turn out.

In 2002, Deion Sanders was waived from the reserve/retired list by Washington so he could become a free agent and join the Raiders that season, but several teams put claims in for Sanders, including the Chargers, who ended up claiming him, so he remained on the reserve/retired list and was restricted from playing.

» READ MORE: The 49ers talked trash after losing to the Eagles in the championship game. Fred Warner wishes they hadn’t.

Ertz was an Eagle from 2013-21, playing in the Birds’ Super Bowl LII win, before he was traded to the Cardinals after failing to reach a contract extension. In 2021, Ertz tied the Cardinals’ franchise record for receptions with 56 catches for 574 yards and three touchdowns in just 11 games.

He played in his only playoff game with the Cardinals in the divisional round in the 2021 season, falling to the eventual Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams.

Ertz signed a three-year, $31.65 million extension with the Cardinals ahead of the 2022 season, but he suffered a torn ACL in Week 10. Ertz was healthy for the opener this season, but he has missed the last five games with a quadriceps injury and was still on injured reserve when he was waived.

Any team that claims Ertz owes him $2.5 million for the rest of the season. It is unknown whether the Eagles would have interest in bringing Ertz back. Tight end Dallas Goedert, who suffered a forearm fracture against the Dallas Cowboys on Nov. 5, attended practice on Thursday but was not wearing a helmet.

Waiver claims will be announced on Monday at about 4 p.m.