Eagles' Brent Celek is hanging on tight

EVER SINCE Zach Ertz arrived in town three drafts ago, with his second-round, PAC-12 pedigree and his 4.6 speed, we've all been trying to put Brent Celek out to pasture.

Thanks for the memories, Brent. Thanks for that 76-catch, eight-touchdown season in 2009. Thanks for averaging 13.1 yards per catch in 2011, when you played most of the season with a torn hip labrum and a sports hernia and never even missed a practice or appeared on an injury report.

Thanks for all of those kill shots to the head, ribs, groin and knees you've taken for the team, and all of the yards you managed to gain after them. Thanks for all of the injuries you played through and the games you never missed. Thanks for all of the blocking help you gave LeSean McCoy.

Now, if you wouldn't mind just moving over to the side a little, so that we can watch Ertz make mincemeat of that poor linebacker who is trying to cover him.

Here's the thing, though. When the Eagles open the season against the Atlanta Falcons in the Georgia Dome on Sept. 14, Celek will once again be the team's starting tight end. Not Ertz.

And when the season winds down next January or February, there's a very good chance that Celek will have taken the majority of the tight-end snaps once again this season. Not Ertz.

This was supposed to be the summer Ertz wrestled the starting job away from the 30-year-old Celek. He worked hard in the offseason to improve his blocking, talking to offensive line coaches and future Hall of Fame tight ends and training with MMA fighters.

But then he suffered a core-muscle injury early in training camp and has missed the entire preseason.

Ertz hopes to be back for the Atlanta game. But even if he is, his snaps likely will be limited to passing downs and two-tight-end sets.

And if the preseason and their 11-on-11 team work in training camp is any indication, the Eagles will be cutting down on their use of two-tight-end sets this season as they make greater use of running back Darren Sproles in the passing game.

Last year, they used two-tight-end formations on 344 of their 1,128 offensive snaps, or 30.1 percent of the time. Celek played 815 snaps; Ertz played 587.

Ertz played mainly on passing downs and had 58 catches to Celek's 32. But Celek is one of the league's top blocking tight ends, which is no small thing in Chip Kelly's offense.

"As tight ends, you have to be able to do everything,"' Celek said. "That's what makes the tight-end position so unique. You have to be able to block. You have to be able to catch passes. You have to be able to pass-block.

"It's not easy, but I take all of that stuff very seriously. I take pride in blocking. Even in college [at Cincinnati], it was something I was good at. But when I first got here in [Andy Reid's] West Coast [offense], it wasn't something that was really emphasized. But obviously, in this offense, we run the ball a lot. So it's emphasized."

The 6-5, 250-pound Ertz poses major matchup problems for opposing defenses. So Kelly will get him on the field, particularly on third down.

Forty-two of Ertz's 58 catches last season resulted in first downs. He had 23 third-down receptions, a team-high 21 of which resulted in first downs.

But Kelly loves the 6-4, 255-pound Celek, and with good reason.

"I think he's underrated in terms of everything he does," the Eagles coach said. "I think he may be one of the best-blocking tight ends in the league.

"But I think, you know, you saw he made a great catch on the touchdown pass from Sam [Bradford in the Packers game] going in there in the red zone. I think he's a big target. He's got real good range in terms of, if the ball's not exactly thrown on him, he can [still] catch it.

"I think his run-after-the-catch [ability] is a little bit underrated. We have hit him on a couple of screens in the last two years that he's taken pretty far. I think his value to us is huge."

Celek is entering his ninth season. Considering the abuse his body has taken in the previous eight seasons, he should feel like a shot fighter. But, thanks to Kelly's emphasis on sports science, he doesn't. He feels fresh and rejuvenated. Somehow, he feels 25, not 30.

Celek has missed only one game in his career. That was in 2012 with a concussion. And he missed that game only because it was on a Thursday during a short week and he didn't have enough time to go through the concussion protocol.

He hasn't missed a practice this summer. Not one.

"I feel better than I have in a while, man," he said this week. "I feel real good. I've been taking care of my body more. As you get older, you have to. I've just been doing more and more stuff to make sure I'm right physically.

"The older you get, you start hurting more and more. It takes you longer to recover. That's the thing I've focused on - recovery. Eating differently is a big thing. What you put in your body is what you're going to get out of it."

Celek knows the realities of the NFL. Eventually, someone, probably Ertz, will take his job. Eventually, the Eagles will tell him his services are no longer needed, as they did his good buddy Todd Herremans this past offseason.

He has two years left on his contract, neither of which is guaranteed. He has a base salary of $4.7 million this year and $4.9 million next year.

"I don't really think about that stuff," Celek said. "Until the day they call me and tell me they don't want me anymore, I'm going to act like this is my home.

"It's the NFL, man. You're always competing for a job. I've been doing it my whole career. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter what people say. Because I'm still going to come in every day and give it everything I've got. And there's nothing that's going to stop me from doing that. It's inside of me, and I'm not going to stop. I'm never going to stop."

On Twitter: @Pdomo

Blog: eagletarian.com