Nick Sirianni makes Tanner McKee the scapegoat with Eagles’ quarterback change
The line stinks, the coordinator and O-line coach have failed, both starting receivers and Saquon Barkley are hurt. After six straight losses, the coaching staff is under fire. Let's find a patsy.
In the Old Testament we learn in Leviticus that, on Yom Kippur, the Hebrew people sent a goat into the wilderness, symbolically burdened with the sins of the people. Over time, the ritual became a metaphor for the act of shifting blame to someone who doesn’t deserve it.
Which brings us to Tanner McKee.
McKee spent the summer getting third-team quarterback reps behind starter Jalen Hurts and, inexcusably, behind washed-up veteran Andy Dalton.
Dalton threw one pass this season, an interception against the Bears, and was cut by the time Hurts was lost for the season with blood clots in his lungs last month.
Marcus Hayes alerts
At that point, the current iteration of the offensive line — from left to right: Jordan Mailata, Landon Dickerson, Drew Kendall, Tyler Steen, and Markel Bell — had played zero games together.
The current iteration of the offensive line has now played two games together. It is making the sort of inexcusable mistakes you see in springtime OTAs.
First-year offensive line coach Chris Kuper has, so far, been a disaster. He lost Lane Johnson to retirement after three games, but when Dickerson was lost after Game 1, he moved Pro Bowl center Cam Jurgens to left guard, where Jurgens played poorly, then was traded.
First-year, first-time offensive coordinator Sean Mannion, who has been an NFL coach only since 2024, has been even worse.
» READ MORE: Nick ‘Toofer’ Sirianni should start calling Eagles plays again. He succeeds, he stays. Fails? Fire him.
Head coach Nick Sirianni, who has won two NFC titles and a Super Bowl and is now challenged to win without a star-studded roster, suddenly has no answers.
The team has lost six straight games for the first time since 2012.
Andy Reid was fired after the 2012 season.
Sirianni needed a distraction.
So, on Wednesday, he benched McKee.
He did this in a manner that ensured no accountability for nearly three news cycles.
He did this after he spoke with the press around noon but before the locker room opened, where he knew that players would let the public know. Shortly after Sirianni’s news conference, the Eagles leaked to major media outlets that recent arrival Joe Milton would start in place of McKee on Sunday when the Giants visit.
Sirianni next speaks Friday.
He will have some explaining to do.
Milton was a sixth-round pick by the Patriots out of Tennessee in 2024 who was traded to the Cowboys a year later. He has played in five games as a reserve. He made one start for the Patriots as a rookie. He is 6-foot-5, 236 pounds, athletic, and he has a very strong arm.
Apparently, he can throw an orange 100 yards.
We wish “Bazooka Joe” the best.
We hope he gets a better chance than McKee was afforded.
In his three starts, McKee has thrown two touchdown passes and two interceptions, though, to be fair to his critics, he probably should have been intercepted a couple more times. He has been sacked 10 times. He occasionally misreads the defense’s intentions, but he also has played behind a poorly coached offensive line that continually makes mistakes.
Also, he is not mobile.
Also, he is not fortified with viable weaponry.
» READ MORE: Murphy: Eagles turn to Joe Milton, the first of two QB auditions they must stage to make the most of 2026
McKee played in only one game, Oct. 18 against the Panthers, with No. 1 receiver DeVonta Smith and No. 2 receiver Dontayvion Wicks. They have been injured since.
McKee has had Saquon Barkley on the field for the last two starts, but Barkley has been injured, and he’s still on a pitch count.
McKee has played in zero games with Smith, Wicks, and Barkley together.
His most frequent target has been rookie Makai Lemon, who is a possession receiver.
Has McKee been good?
No.
But then, McKee, like Milton, is a former sixth-round pick. He has been an Eagle for four full offseasons, 3½ regular seasons, and three playoff trips.
McKee was completely unsuited to start more than three games in the NFL after almost four years with Sirianni, and that falls at the feet of Sirianni.
Coach better.
At any rate, it is under these impossible circumstances that McKee gets benched.
» READ MORE: What we know (and don’t) about the Eagles entering Week 9 vs. the Giants
Why?
Clearly, he hasn’t had a fair trial.
But there’s pressure to fire Mannion. There’s pressure on Kuper, as folks clamor for ousted offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland. And most importantly, there is pressure on Sirianni.
You know what takes the spotlight off coaching failure?
Shifting the blame to a scapegoat quarterback with no pedigree and no ally.
Shameful.
The Eagles have problems. Eight games into the season, that much is sure. But which ones are symptomatic, versus the ones that are systemic? From the head coach to the personnel, from coordinators to the front office, The Inquirer’s Jeff McLane and David Murphy scrutinize the micro issues that point to some of the larger dilemmas the Eagles now face: should they start to pack it in, and who will be held accountable for the team’s shortcomings? Listen here.
Listen to all episodes here or wherever you get your podcasts.
