If you’re like most, you’re probably indoors or enjoying some shade, and you can’t help but think about some Philadelphia Eagles football. Week 1 brings a date with the hated Dallas Cowboys. Long before we arrive, we’ll have seen three preseason games.
Four quarterbacks are on the roster. The depth chart will need to be trimmed to three before that game vs. Dallas. Too bad for Dorian Thompson-Robinson. The writing has been on the wall since the NFL Draft. His training camp and preseason are about his audition for another professional franchise.
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Say what you will about Jalen Hurts, and believe us. Everyone has joined the conversation. Ask several teams, however, and they’ll tell you they’d take him in a heartbeat.
This is Philadelphia, though, and we’re discussing the fans and the media. The reigning Super Bowl MVP is constantly under fire.
No worries. Hurts will do what he has always done: prove the doubters wrong. In 2025, he’ll take his cues from a new offensive coordinator (Kevin Patullo) and QB coach (Scot Loeffler). The guys joining him in the meeting room are uber talented.
The Eagles seem content with employing the strategy everyone hoped they would
For the past few offseasons, the Eagles have employed the same offseason strategy: find a backup quarterback in the free-agency pool. They rolled the dice on Joe Flacco and Gardner Minshew in 2021. They stuck with Minshew in 2022. During the 2023 and 2024 offseasons, they ran with Marcus Mariota and Kenny Pickett, respectively.
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Those past two names are interesting for a similar reason. In both instances, Philadelphia had Tanner McKee on the roster. No one will confuse him with Jalen Hurts, nor will they mistake him for Mariota and/or Pickett. Truth be told, he isn’t as mobile as either of the players.
McKee is as surgical as they come, though, with his right arm. The day he stepped on the same preseason surface as Mariota and Pickett, he looked better than both of them.
Philadelphia gave up on its two most recent quarterback backups in as many offseasons. So far, they have yet to add another. That signals that McKee is slotted in as the backup. That is precisely the news fans and the media have awaited. Third-string duties could be handled by recently drafted Kyle McCord.
Hurts is, again, the reigning Super Bowl MVP. McKee enters his third year with the franchise and has proven his mettle. Someone of McCord’s pedigree gives Philadelphia the best QB room in the NFC East, if not the entire conference. That’s good news as the Eagles enter training camp.
This article originally appeared on Eagles Wire: Long-ignored Eagles QB strategy should pay off huge this season