Roob’s Observations: McKee makes meaningless game fun in 1st NFL start originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
Fortunately, Tanner McKee made a meaningless game a lot of fun with a terrific performance in his first NFL start.
And it was nice to see the Eagles tie a franchise record with their 14th win, 20-13 over the Giants.
And they did it with their starters safe and sound on the sidelines and the backups doing work.
Now the good stuff begins.
Onto the playoffs.
1. Scoreboard watching all afternoon to see who the Eagles would face next weekend in their postseason opener it struck me that it really doesn’t matter. The Eagles are better than the Packers, and they’re better than the Commanders, and I’ll be surprised if they don’t take care of business next weekend. I like where this team is going into the playoffs. Other than one horrible fourth quarter in Washington, they’ve played at an elite level for almost all of the last three months. For only the fourth time all year, they’ll have DeVonta Smith, A.J. Brown and Dallas Goedert all healthy. They can run the ball better than anybody and since the bye week they’ve been throwing it efficiently and productively. They’ve got the No. 1 defense in the NFL and they’re at home, they’re healthy, they’re rested and they finished the season winning 12 of their last 13. Turns out it’ll be the Packers, but to me it doesn’t even matter. The Eagles are the better team.
2. It was impressive seeing Tanner McKee throw a couple touchdown passes last week at the end of that Dallas game, but what he did Sunday is even more impressive in a way because he was doing it with an entirely backup offensive line (and not a very good one), a bunch of rookies and backup receivers – other than Dallas Goedert early – and he still performed at such a high level. There’s no doubt this kid has a bright future in this league, and hopefully Howie Roseman resists the urge to trade him because I’m sure there’ll be significant offers. McKee has everything you’re looking for in a young quarterback – accuracy, decisiveness, intelligence, big arm, great size. He’s got an outstanding pocket sense, delivers the ball accurately on the move and has that innate ability to throw the ball not where his receivers are but where they’re going. That 19-yard out to Jahan Dotson to convert a 3rd-and-15 in the second quarter was a brilliant throw. He had a few sweet ones Sunday. He was getting the ball to guys on the move, giving them the ability to not just make catches but catch the football in stride and pick up big-time yards after the catch. He’s the first quarterback in Eagles history to throw four touchdown passes in his first two games. Carson Wentz had three in 2016 (and Scott Tinsley did in two 1987 strike replacement games). McKee finished 27-for-41 for 269 yards with TD passes to Ainias Smith and E.J. Jenkins and no turnovers. Kenny Pickett showed his value against Washington and Dallas, but I just can’t see McKee being No. 3 again next year. He’s too good. Heck, I don’t want to get too carried away, but I’m convinced he’ll be an NFL starter somewhere at some point.
3. Jeremiah Trotter Jr. is such a fun player to watch. He’s so different from his dad, who was a big, powerful downhill thumper. Trotter Jr. is quick and athletic and instinctive, but he’s also physical, and every time we’ve seen him play – whether it’s been mop-up duty at the end of blowout wins or Sunday in his first extended action of his career – we’ve seen him find his way to the ball. He seems to have that knack for navigating through traffic to make a tackle. And he knows how to finish. Picked up 11 tackles Sunday, 2nd-most on the team behind Oren Burks’ 17. Trotter Jr. goes about 225, so he’s probably 35 pounds lighter than dad. Totally different sort of linebacker, but quite a promising prospect.
4. There’s a lot to like about Will Shipley, and he’s got the ability to be a big-time receiving back in this offense. It looks like Shipley is a capable runner, but he’s really got potential as a back coming out of the backfield. Runs sharp routes, knows how to get open, has soft hands, catches the ball well and he’s quick and physical once he has the ball in his hands. Shipley had never caught a pass in his NFL career before Sunday, but he caught four for 35 yards and looked really comfortable doing it. We’ll see what happens with Kenny Gainwell, who’s unsigned beyond 2024 and could very well be looking for an opportunity to play more elsewhere. Either way, I could see Shipley having a significant role in the offense next year, especially as a receiver.
5. Jahan Dotson looked like a real, live NFL football player Sunday, and without DeVonta Smith and A.J. Brown somebody had to catch the football, but it was nice to see McKee trust the former 1st-round pick and put him in position to make some plays. It’s been a horrible year for Dotson, who the Eagles acquired for a 3rd-round pick. He came into Sunday with just 12 catches for 122 yards in 16 games despite playing more than 600 offensive snaps. But he had 7-for-94 Sunday and looked really good doing it. Only 28 fewer yards against the Giants than he had all year. Looked quick and athletic and made some people miss once he caught the ball. I get that Brown, Smith and Goedert are going to get most of the targets, but it doesn’t hurt to have someone else that you can trust, and Dotson showed Sunday that there’s no reason for Hurts to not trust him. Nothing wrong with having another weapon you can count on.
6. I get that it’s Drew Locke and it’s the Giants and their offense stinks, but it was nice to see the Eagles’ defensive backups hold the Giants to 238 yards and 13 points and lock up the NFL’s No. 1 defensive ranking for the season. The job Vic Fangio did this year is remarkable. He took a defense ranked 26th last year and in shambles by the end of the season and rebuilt it almost overnight. Credit Howie Roseman for bringing in Quinyon Mitchell, Cooper DeJean, Zack Baun and Isaiah Rodgers and to guys like Nakobe Dean, Nolan Smith and Jalen Carter for making huge improvements. But after last year’s collapse, the Eagles knew they had to be younger, faster and more physical on defense, and Fangio was the perfect guy to oversee that transition. This is the Eagles’ first No. 1 defense since 1991, and that was a superstar-laden group that had been together for a long time. This is the youngest defense in the NFL, and they’re only going to get better. And I think they’ll come up big in the playoffs.
7. I really like the Eagles’ young depth in the secondary, and guys like Kelee Ringo, Sydney Brown and Eli Ricks all played a lot less this year than they did last year as rookies, so this was a good chance to see them get rare extended playing time. This could be another offseason of change in the secondary. Slay played well in his 12th season but has been hurt a lot and is 34 now. Isaiah Rodgers, who played over 300 snaps as the third corner, is unsigned beyond this year. Rodgers was very good this year, especially considering he was out of football all last year because of his suspension. But Ringo is impressive and I could see him as the third corner next year or even as an outside starter down the line at some point since it would make sense to keep Cooper DeJean in the slot. This franchise had trouble for years developing homegrown secondary talent, but with Quinyon Mitchell, DeJean, Ringo, Brown and Ricks, they’ve got an impressive stable of promising young d-backs to build around.
8. For the record, the Eagles’ starting offensive line was Fred Johnson, Tyler Steen, Nick Gates, Jack Driscoll and Darian Kinnard. Big Fred played well when Jordan Mailata missed four games earlier this year, but overall this is not a very good group of backups, and watching them play sure makes you appreciate Mailata, Landon Dickerson, Cam Jurgens, Mekhi Becton and Lane Johnson. We are so lucky to be able to watch that group work together week after week both opening up the holes for Saquon Barkley to run through and keeping opposing rushers away from Jalen Hurts. We’ve had some really bad offensive lines around here, and until Tra Thomas and Jon Runyan took over the tackle spots the Eagles hadn’t really had a single elite offensive lineman since the days of Stan Walters and Jerry Sisemore. So to have this group together now, it’s just unbelievable to Roseman for building it and Jeff Stoutland for developing it. I don’t know if there are any other cities where offensive linemen are appreciated as much as receivers and quarterbacks, but this is the perfect group for this city.
9. I know a lot of people were disappointed that Nick Sirianni shut down Saquon Barkley 101 yards shy of breaking the NFL single-season rushing record, and I get it. That would have been a once-in-a-lifetime achievement, and I don’t know if anybody else will make a run at that record any time soon. But there was something comforting about seeing Barkley sitting on the bench in his hoodie, far from the Giants defense, safely out of harm’s way. And I can’t help thinking of the can of worms it would have opened if we were in the middle of the fourth quarter and Barkley had 19 carries for 87 yards and just how skittish everybody would have been trying to get those few remaining yards, Saquon taking a pounding, hit after hit, against a stacked box. And the reality is that Barkley has only reached 101 yards six times all year before the fourth quarter. It is disappointing. But the best running back in the NFL will be healthy and rested next weekend, and in the big picture, that’s really all that matters.
10. Was good seeing Goedert get out there for the first time since the Ravens game and run around and make some plays. Goedert had one bad drop that should have been a first down, but he did catch four passes for 55 yards, his 4th-biggest game of the year despite playing just the first half. It was a reminder of just how good Goedert is, and we really haven’t seen a lot of it this year. We haven’t seen a ton of healthy Goedert this year, but when he’s healthy he’s still a top-5 tight end in the NFL, and if the Eagles are going to make a deep postseason run they need Goedert to be a factor.
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