Nick Sirianni isn’t ready to hand Andy Dalton a clean label as the Eagles’ backup quarterback, and after Monday night, it’s not hard to see why.
The issue was front and center in Philadelphia’s loss to the Bears, when Dalton came off the bench for an injured Jalen Hurts and promptly delivered the kind of play that can tilt a game on its head: a brutal interception at the goal line. On Wednesday, Sirianni was asked directly whether Dalton still holds the QB2 job, and he wouldn’t go there.
“You know, I have a lot of faith in both of those guys. Obviously, what happened in the game, we don’t want turnovers by anybody. ...
We can’t turn the ball over. We did in that situation, and we lost points because of it.
But I still have faith in Tanner, in Andy, in how (rookie) Cole (Payton) is developing. I still have faith in that room.”
Pressed again later about the backup situation, Sirianni said he had answered the first question the way he “wanted” to answer it.
That uncertainty has been hanging over the Eagles for months. Dalton and Tanner McKee spent the summer trading places in the competition for the No. 2 job, and neither one separated himself enough to shut the door. Dalton, acquired for a seventh-round pick in March, and McKee, who once carried real trade value, both had uneven showings in camp and the preseason.
Philadelphia responded by keeping four quarterbacks - Hurts, Dalton, McKee and Payton - because the depth chart behind Hurts never really settled.
Dalton opened the season as the backup, with McKee listed as the emergency QB3, but the setup never looked especially secure. That was the concern on Monday when Hurts took a late hit and had to be checked for a concussion as the Eagles were moving the ball against Chicago.
Dalton entered and immediately helped extend the drive, handing off to Saquon Barkley for a 14-yard gain to the Bears’ 1-yard line. Philadelphia had gone 96 yards already.
But the finish went sideways fast. Barkley’s next two runs lost a net yard, and then on third-and-goal from the 2, Dalton threw a telegraphed interception to Bears safety Dillon Thieneman.
Afterward, Dalton took responsibility for the “costly decision.”
“I obviously didn’t see the safety in the middle,” Dalton said. “He just read my eyes real good and made the play. I can’t put this team in that situation.”
Still, that mistake only sharpened the question that’s been lingering since the summer: what happened between last season and now that pushed McKee out of the backup spot?
The Eagles may have to answer that soon. Whether McKee is back in the emergency role against the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday - or whether Dalton’s interception finally opens the door for McKee to move up to QB2 - remains to be seen.
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