With Tanner McKee currently dealing with a finger injury, the Philadelphia Eagles have decided to trade for a proven backup QB in Sam Howell. According to Tom Pelissero, the team is sending a 2026 5th-round pick and a 2027 7th in exchange for the 24-year-old signal caller and a 2026 6th-rounder.
This is a pretty low-cost move for the Eagles, and in return they get a quarterback who of course played in 17 games for the Commanders in 2023 before the arrival of Jayden Daniels. Howell threw for 3,946 yards that year, completing 63% of his passes, but for a slightly concerning 21/21 TD/INT ratio.
The move is also probably a sign that Howie and company aren’t overly high on Dorian Thompson-Robinson and wouldn’t be overly keen on dropping Kyle McCord into a live-game scenario based on his preseason outings. It also signifies that the Tanner McKee injury could be a little more serious than we previously thought.
McKee lit up the preseason opener on the back of a pretty impressive preseason last year, and a sterling effort against the Giants late in the proceedings. He won the QB2 role fairly easily and fans were beyond excited about his development. The gap between McKee and the other two quarterbacks was significant, so if he is going to miss some time, it makes sense for the Eagles to move one late round pick and swap another for a QB who can fill that void.
Howell will likely backup Jalen Hurts until McKee returns, and then be the third QB on the roster once the Stanford product is back in the fold.
In a slightly funny corresponding move, the Vikings then decided to sign Carson Wentz to backup J.J McCarthy.
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