As Eagles running backs coach Jemal Singleton preached ball security on Thursday, he noted that some players haven’t gotten hit in a while.
And then he turned right toward Tanner McKee.
“It actually has been a while since I’ve gotten hit,” McKee said with a laugh on Thursday. “I’m excited to go out and playing the game. It’s fun getting in a rhythm and playing football again, it just feels familiar and it’s great. I’m excited.”
The Eagles this week made the decision to rest some of their key starters in Week 18 against the Commanders.
That means no Jalen Hurts, which also means McKee is going to get the second start of his young NFL career.
“Obviously super excited for the opportunity,” McKee said. “But I feel like each week leading up I’ve been preparing like I’m going to play in case I do. So I feel like preparation has been pretty similar. It’s nice to get more reps in practice, obviously. But really excited for the opportunity.”
The difference between this game and Week 18 last year, though, is that there are real stakes at play this time around. The Eagles have a chance to improve their playoff seeding Sunday if they win and if the Bears lose. (If both of those things happen, the Eagles will go from the 3-seed to the 2-seed in the NFC.)
So this is going to be the most meaningful game of McKee’s young NFL career and he’s looking forward to it.
“I’m definitely excited for that,” McKee said. “It’s obviously fun when something’s on the line. Anytime you get out, it’s an opportunity to go out and perform and play. That’s what we do. If there was nothing on the line or if it was the Super Bowl, you’re going to approach the game the same way. It’s an opportunity to play the game.”
McKee, 25, is in his third NFL season and has played sparingly over the last two seasons. But the former sixth-round pick from Stanford has certainly looked the part every time he’s gotten action in the regular season or the preseason or even in practice.
The Eagles this offseason traded Kenny Pickett because they knew McKee was ready to be their backup. And they’ve watched him continue to develop.
“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,” head coach Nick Sirianni said.
“It’s a great room where those guys feed off each other and learn from each other. He’s got Jalen, 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.”
McKee said that even when he’s not playing, he tries to add value to the team by knowing the offense as well as possible. Whenever his teammates have a question for him, he wants to have an answer. He also has a role in the quarterbacks room and has built a rapport with Hurts over the past three seasons.
Hurts is excited to see McKee get this opportunity.
“Absolutely,” Hurts said. “You get excited for that because you build those relationships within the room.”
This season, McKee has seen action in just three games. After the Eagles built a big lead against the Raiders in Week 15, McKee led the Eagles on a drive that took 11:22 off the clock and iced the game. He was 3-for-3 for 33 yards during that drive; those are the only three passes he’s thrown this season.
When he got his chance in Week 18 last season, McKee led the Eagles to a 20-13 win over the Giants, completing 65.9% of his passes with 2 touchdowns and 0 interceptions. That came a week after throwing the first 2 touchdowns of his career in a blowout win over the Cowboys.
McKee is feeing even more ready for his opportunity this time.
“Obviously, with more reps you get more confidence,” he said. “You have that good chemistry with the guys around you. Obviously, feel like I have a good feel, can play fast. I feel like as a quarterback, it’s really big to be able to play and just react to the game instead of trying to think of ‘What’s my job, what’s my footwork, what’s everybody else doing?’ You can just play and react. So I feel like I’ve gotten to that point and I feel comfortable doing that.”