The Philadelphia Eagles have flipped the script for Week 18, putting in the backups against the Washington Commanders, which means they will be showcasing one of the city's favorite players: Tanner McKee.
This will be McKee's first start of the season as he is stepping in for the starter, Jalen Hurts, as the starters will be resting for the Commanders game. McKee showcased his skills in relief action against the Dallas Cowboys and won his only start against the New York Giants last year. Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni shared with the media what he has seen with McKee's development and why it has worked out well for the young QB.
“I think that when you see Tanner, he's really good about knowing where to go with the football, seeing the defense, and being able to deliver things accurately," Sirianni said via NBC Philadelphia's John Clark. "It's a great room where those guys feed off each other and learn from each other. He's got Jalen [Hurts], being able to learn from Jalen, which is a huge deal. Anytime you're around a really good quarterback, your game goes up, too. He's able to sit in that meeting room with Jalen for hours upon hours a day just learning from him. That's a big deal. (Quarterbacks Coach) Scot (Loeffler)'s done a nice job coaching him and continuing to help him develop. His quarterback coaches in the past, [former Eagles Quarterbacks Coach] Doug [Nussmeier] did a really good job of helping him develop as well, and [former Eagles Offensive Coordinator] Kellen [Moore] and [Offensive Coordinator] Kevin [Patullo]. We will see, obviously, what we do this week, but I like his continued development of what he's done.”
McKee is about to show off his skills as he has been waiting for this moment
Last season, McKee completed 30 of 45 passes for 323 yards and four touchdowns to zero interceptions, completing 66.7% of his passes. Those are the type of numbers that got teams around the NFL excited.
Some thought the Eagles would have received multiple trade calls about McKee from QB-needy teams. While there were numerous calls for him, the Eagles and general manager Howie Roseman did not want to let him go. In fact, Roseman called McKee to let him know that he would be the backup for the Eagles in 2026.
The Eagles decided to trade last year's backup, Kenny Pickett, to the Cleveland Browns, and they did end up selecting Kyle McCord in the 2025 NFL Draft, but still wanted to stick with McKee at QB2.
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This is a big opportunity for McKee to show the NFL once again that he can be a starter in this league. Another outstanding performance late in the year, and it might get too difficult for Roseman to ignore the phone calls in the offseason.