Howie Roseman's QB Depth Obsession: The Tanner McKee Trade Calculus For The Eagles

The Eagles GM believes in the value of the QB3 position.

Jan 4, 2026; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Tanner McKee (16) throws a pass during the second quarter against the Washington Commanders at Lincoln Financial Field. | Eric Hartline-Imagn Images

The recent Eagles trade for battle-tested veteran quarterback Andy Dalton had many in Philadelphia wondering if the other shoe was about to drop in the form of a Tanner McKee deal.

Multiple sources have indicated to Eagles On SI that wasn't the thinking of Eagles GM Howie Roseman when he sent a 2027 seventh-round pick to Carolina for the veteran signal caller.

Roseman simply values the quarterback position so highly that he wants legitimate competency at the QB3 spot.

Last season, Roseman dealt for Sam Howell—with his 18 career starts—rather than simply handing the roster spot to sixth-round developmental project Kyle McCord. (To add context, that move was somewhat expedited by a thumb injury to McKee that kept Jalen Hurts' primary backup unavailable early in the season.)

However, Roseman's history of prioritizing meaningful backups runs much deeper than Howell. Remember, the Eagles once had Joe Flacco earmarked as the backup to Hurts in 2021 and still traded for Gardner Minshew, which added the kind of flexibility that allowed Roseman to ultimately move Flacco to the New York Jets.

Dalton, 38, is in the running for the most accomplished QB3 in history, with 169 regular-season starts and 39,793 passing yards. That said, he wasn't particularly effective when given opportunities in Carolina over the past three seasons, losing six of seven starts.

The background there is that the Panthers weren't very good in 2023 and 2024. In one start last season for the injured Bryce Young—during a year when the Panthers were far more competitive—Dalton was ineffective in a Week 8, 40-9 blowout loss to Buffalo, completing 16 of 24 passes for 175 yards with an interception and two fumbles.

So while Dalton is far more accomplished than McKee, who will turn 26 next month, it's certainly believable the latter is a better alternative in 2026.

The Trade Calculus

Feb 24, 2026; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Philadelphia Eagles general manager Howie Roseman speaks at the NFL Scouting Combine at the Indiana Convention Center. | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

The belief inside the Jefferson Health Training Complex is that McKee is held in higher regard around the league than his public perception as a 2023 sixth-round pick out of Stanford, whose development has largely taken place behind the scenes—outside of two Week 18 starts playing alongside backups (one pretty good in 2024 and last season's rather nondescript, to be kind).

It's also hard to fairly include McKee in the trio of young quarterbacks who've been discussed as potential starters this offseason—namely San Francisco's Mac Jones, a 2021 first-round pick who has excelled as the backup to Brock Purdy, and Houston's Davis Mills, 27, who has started 29 career games and flashed with three wins in three starts for the Texans when C.J. Stroud was injured last season.

Yet that's where the Eagles have placed McKee.

While discussing the Jets’ decision to go "Back to the Future" with veteran quarterback Geno Smith, plugged-in Jets beat reporter Rich Cimini noted that New York did check on McKee's availability earlier this offseason.

"They looked into trading for guys like Tanner McKee and Davis Mills and Mac Jones," Cimini said on The Saturday Huddle. "Those teams were asking for second-round picks for these guys, so, exorbitant prices."

None of this should be a surprise. Former Falcons GM Thomas Dimitroff, a friend of Roseman, once jokingly revealed he had to tell the Eagles GM to stop asking for second-round picks in every trade conversation.

McKee probably belongs in a different category—certainly under Jones and maybe Mills, but ahead of Denver's Jarrett Stidham, another backup QB some NFL teams really like but who remains completely unproven and is a little older.

Stidham, 29, has just five starts on his resume and flamed out in the AFC Championship Game while playing for the injured Bo Nix, albeit in a very tough situation both from preparation and weather perspectives.

It also wouldn't be the worst thing for the Eagles to allow McKee to play out the final year of his deal as a high-level insurance policy for Hurts. After all, even when McKee walks in free agency next spring, he should generate the kind of deal that could result in a third-round, or at worst a high-level Day 3 compensatory pick in 2028, especially if the Eagles are valuing the player correctly.

That means the ground floor of Roseman's asking price should be a conditional third-round pick that could become a second, and that kind of endgame makes it understandable to start any bidding at a second-round pick.