‘ready At A Moment's Notice': Tanner Mckee Up For Biggest Start Of His Career

‘Ready at a moment's notice': Tanner McKee up for biggest start of his career originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

Tanner McKee has started two games in his NFL career and both were on the last day of the season with mostly backups playing.

So he should feel right at home.

This time, the backups will be playing out of necessity, not because the Eagles have a playoff berth locked up.

McKee, who was the Eagles’ 3^rd-stringer until 12 days ago, will make his third NFL start Sunday against the Panthers at the Linc while Jalen Hurts is out with blood clots.

It will be the first meaningful start of his four-year career.

McKee was the Eagles’ 3^rd-stringer behind Hurts and Andy Dalton until the Rams game, when Nick Sirianni flip-flopped Dalton and McKee, making McKee No. 2 and Dalton No. 3. The Eagles then released Dalton last Friday, and rookie 5^th-round pick Cole Payton became No. 3 behind Hurts and McKee. Dalton threw one pass this year against the Bears and it was picked off. As of now, Payton is No. 2.

McKee’s initial reaction to the news? Concern for his teammate of four years.

“Initially, just hoping the best for him,” McKee said at his locker after practice Wednesday. “Obviously, some things are bigger than football, and his health is obviously that. So hoping that gets taken care of. And we have great doctors here that are going to do everything that they can. So, yeah, I think that was the first thing just making sure he’s OK for that.

“He’s an unbelievable teammate, expressed a lot of confidence in me and just said he’s going to have my back if I need anything. He’s been a great resource for me every game that we’ve been together for the last four years, and he’s going to continue to be that.

“I love Jalen, he’s a great teammate to me, he’s been a great mentor to me. We’ve been brothers for the last four years, and so obviously hope all the best for him.”

The Eagles players found out Hurts was out when they took the field Thursday for their walkthrough and McKee was running the offense.

McKee had to quickly switch gears from concern for Hurts to leading the offense in his place. 

“You’re walking out to walkthrough, and it was like, ‘OK, well, I’m taking the one reps now, and you know, let’s move like I’m going to be the guy,’” he said. “As a backup quarterback, that’s the mindset you have to have. At any moment, you (might have to) be ready to play. On Sunday, it could be the first play, it could be the last play, you have to be ready.

“So it’s kind of a luxury for me to be able to have a few days of getting the ones in practice, getting those reps, and just running the meetings or whatever it is. It’s kind of a luxury for me as a backup to be able to have a week to prepare like that.”

McKee, a 6^th-round pick in 2023, beat the Giants on the last day of the 2024 season and lost to the Commanders on the last day of the 2025 season. He’s thrown five touchdown passes and one interception in parts of four games, completing 61 percent of his passes and compiling a 95.7 passer rating.

When McKee beat the Giants in 2024, he became the first Eagles quarterback drafted in the sixth round or later to win a regular-season start since 7^th-round pick Koy Detmer beat the 49ers in San Francisco late in the 2002 season (with late-game relief from A.J. Feeley).

McKee and his former Eagles teammate Marcus Mariota are the only quarterbacks in NFL history to throw two touchdowns and no interceptions in each of their first two NFL games. 

It’s not common for a quarterback to go from 3^rd string to 2^nd string to starter, but that’s where McKee is. He competed with Dalton for the starting job all summer, only to watch Dalton – incorrectly – named Hurts’ backup. But after Dalton’s damaging interception vs. the Bears, McKee moved up to No. 2.

It’s been a weird few weeks, but as a backup QB in the NFL you have to always be ready for anything.

“That’s the NFL,” McKee said. “As a quarterback, especially as a backup quarterback, you have to be ready at a moment’s notice. And so the thing that’s been nice is the way I prepare and the way that I’ve been preparing is not going to change. And so I feel like these last few weeks, whether it was a three, the two, the one, whatever it was, the preparation is going to be the same. 

“I feel like I was ready at any moment the last few weeks. And so now I’m obviously going to be ready this week as well.”

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