Athlon Sports names Tanner McKee as one of their top breakout players

There has been hype surrounding Tanner McKee since his days at Centennial High School, and all of the McKee believers are expecting this season to be his year.

The second-year starter has the tall task of ending a string of poor seasons for Stanford, as they have finished below .500 in two out of the last three years. The Cardinal will be taking on the toughest schedule in the Pac-12 and one of the harder ones in the country, but with a quarterback as talented as McKee and weapons as experienced as his, Stanford has a chance to spoil some people's seasons.

Their success in 2022 will almost certainly be determined by how well McKee does, and outlets such as Athlon Sports believe this is the year he will breakout as he made their top 50 breakout players for 2022. Here is what they had to say about Stanford's gun slinger:

Stanford's best chance to rebound from a disappointing 3-9 season in 2021 starts with the right arm of McKee. After knocking off the rust from serving on a two-year LDS mission (2018-19), McKee emerged as the No. 1 quarterback on the Farm and threw for 2,327 yards and 15 touchdowns. With one of the Pac-12's top receiving corps at his disposal, look for McKee to take a big step forward this fall.

We saw McKee's potential in the first five games of last season when he completed 65% of his passes on 7.2 yards per attempt, while throwing for 11 touchdowns and no interceptions. The second half of the season didn't go his, nor the team's way, but now that they have a full normal and healthy offseason to prepare, Stanford is looking to be a team to make noise.