Tanner's Turn: Examining The Eagles' Backup QB Situation

The life of an NFL backup quarterback is always a heartbeat away from afterthought to necessity.

That's the importance of the position, and the intangibles that make a good backup can swing like an EKG as well. Coaches want supportive right up until they need the big man on campus.

For the Philadelphia Eagles, the job has been passed from Kenny Pickett, now a potential starter in Cleveland, to third-year pro Tanner McKee.

The goal, as it is every year, is for star signal caller Jalen Hurts to take every snap, but in the Super MVP's four years as the starter, he's missed some time in three of those seasons, including 2024-25 when Pickett performed admirably despite a damaged rib.

McKee, meanwhile, had been developing down the depth chart as a sixth-round pick in 2023 draft out of Stanford, impressing in practices and preseason games along the way.

What really put McKee over the top was flashing in the final two games of the regular season, including starting the meaningless regular-season finale against the New York Giants. He completed 30 of 45 passes for 323 yards with 4 touchdowns for a brilliant 117.2 passer rating in the short sample size.

It was enough for the Eagles to eschew a final season with Pickett and hand the baton to the 6-foot-6, 25-year-old.

In mop-up duty against Dallas in Week 17, two of McKee's four passes went for TDs, becoming the first player in NFL history to throw for multiple TDs with fewer than five attempts in their first career game.

“How about the Mormon Missile?” left tackle Jordan Mailata smiled after the game. “The secret’s out.”

In his first career start, in Week 18 against the Giants, McKee completed 27 of 41 passes for 269 yards with two more touchdowns, although the offense got a little repetitive late.

McKee was so impressive to some that Nick Sirianni was asked if Pickett was in trouble for the playoffs as QB2, especially with the rib injury hampering the South Jersey native.

The Eagles stuck with the status quo, and Pickett was able to finish blowouts in the NFC Championship Game against Washington, as well as the Super Bowl LIX win over Kansas City. However, McKee did show enough to allow Howie Roseman to feel comfortable enough to flip Pickett to the Browns for a 2025 fifth-round pick and QB Dorian-Thompson Robinson.

Thompson-Robinson will try to hold off rookie sixth-round pick Kyle McCord for the No. 3 spot, although a strong spring from McCord when it came to accuracy and processing skills may have already flipped that.

As for McKee, his rookie deal runs through the 2026 season, so the idea is to get a top-shelf backup at a cost-effective rate for the next two seasons before it's time to flip McKee and hand the QB2 job to McCord.