Quarterback is supposed to be the Eagles’ safest room. Jalen Hurts is the franchise guy, Tanner McKee has shown enough to be a legitimate backup option, and Andy Dalton brings the kind of veteran experience that usually keeps a depth chart steady. But Philadelphia still has a mess to sort through, and it starts with how many quarterbacks it can realistically carry into the season.
The Eagles currently have four passers on the roster after spending a fifth-round pick on Cole Payton. That creates the obvious roster question: do they keep all four, cut one to get down to three, or try to work out an offseason trade? It’s one of the more interesting issues in a position-by-position look at the team heading toward the 2026 season, and in some cases it may need an answer right away.
Hurts is the centerpiece, of course, but even he comes with a few questions as Philadelphia heads into a new offensive setup. The Eagles have already shown they are willing to adjust around him when things get rocky.
That happened in 2024, when Hurts was turning the ball over at an alarming rate and the offense shifted after four games to a more conservative version of Kellen Moore’s scheme designed to protect him. It worked.
From the first week of October that season through the end of the playoffs, Hurts put up 17 total touchdowns and no giveaways in the second half of games. The Eagles didn’t lose a game he started and finished.
Philadelphia leaned on that same risk-averse approach again in 2025, and Hurts handled the football well for most of the year. Even so, the passing game had issues, which led the team to make major changes this offseason. The result is one of the most dramatic adjustments of Hurts’ career so far.
Hurts likes the new offense and is willing to go along with it, but the concerns are obvious. What happens if he has trouble working the middle of the field or getting the ball out quickly?
What if the new receivers aren’t consistently separating? What if he doesn’t get back to running the ball the way he has in the past?
If those problems pile up and the Eagles start losing, would they go back to a safer approach? That’s the real question if Hurts has a rough first half of the season.
If he doesn’t, the issue may never come up. But there’s no hiding the fact that some growing pains are possible.
Behind him, the backup picture may be even more unsettled. McKee is still there, but the Eagles appear to be leaning toward Dalton as the QB2 for now. Dalton got most of the reps in spring practices that were open to the media, and while he didn’t clearly beat McKee, he seemed to have a firmer command of Sean Mannion’s offense.
That doesn’t lock anything in. Once the pads come on, McKee could change the conversation the way he has in previous training camps and reclaim the backup job. Or Philadelphia could decide it has another move to make.
McKee is in the final year of his rookie contract, and it wouldn’t be a surprise if the Eagles explored trading him for a Day 3 pick. A fourth-round return would be easy to understand, especially since McKee likely would leave in free agency anyway to chase a QB2 role with a path to starting someday.
Dalton, meanwhile, gives the Eagles a cheaper veteran who has been around forever by NFL standards and is entering his 17th season. He may fit Mannion’s system better than McKee, even if his stay in Philadelphia ends up being only a one-year deal.
That makes the summer battle for QB2 one of the more compelling parts of camp and the preseason. McKee could win the job outright, or he could play well enough to bring back a valuable Day 3 pick. Either way, the Eagles can live with it.
Payton is the piece that complicates everything. The fifth-round rookie did not have a good spring, and Philadelphia drafted him with the hope of developing another Day 3 type of quarterback, the way it did with McKee three years ago. The Eagles tried a similar route with Kyle McCord last summer, only to cut him and bring in Sam Howell before the season.
They’re attempting the same kind of development path again, but Payton was not at McCord’s level, even if the offenses were different. The bigger issue now is patience.
Can the Eagles afford to keep him as the QB3 on the 53-man roster? Would they be willing to reserve a spot for a developmental quarterback the way they plan to do with Uar Bernard as a reserve defensive tackle?
How many roster spots can be set aside for projects?
If McKee gets traded, Philadelphia would almost certainly have no choice but to keep Payton. That may not be the cleanest answer for the quarterback room, even if the team wants to develop him. Right now, Payton has to show something this summer to justify staying, especially with McKee and Dalton battling for the backup job.
At the moment, the simplest answer may also be the best one: keep McKee and Dalton, and sort out the rest later.
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Eagles Draft Pick Already Facing A Brutal O-Line Roster Squeeze
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Cameron Williams is one of the young players caught in that squeeze. The 2025 sixth-round pick missed most of his rookie season because of a shoulder injury and only got into action in Week 18 against Washington, so every camp rep matters as he tries to carve out a backup role. With the Eagles continuing to shuffle pieces around up front, Williams has little margin for error as the competition tightens. [Read more 🡒]