Eagles QB Tanner McKee ‘Super Excited’ to Learn From Jalen Hurts

The sixth-round draft pick of the Philadelphia Eagles overcame melanoma, went on a mission to Brazil, and met Jalen Hurts when he took a recruiting trip to Alabama

PHILADELPHIA – Anytime the Philadelphia Eagles draft a quarterback, it’s worth further exploration.

They are, after all, the self-anointed quarterback factory. That’s what general manager Howie Roseman said the last time they dove into the quarterback pool.

That was in 2020 when the Eagles' general manager drafted Jalen Hurts 53rd overall.

The move came just months after Roseman made Carson Wentz a $100 million millionaire. The experiment blew up when Wentz couldn’t handle the threat to his job and went south faster than a Canadian goose fleeing its country for winter.

This time, Roseman didn’t wait a few months to take a quarterback. It took just a handful of days after Hurts signed his monster contract extension for the GM to take another dip when he drafted Stanford Cardinal quarterback Tanner McKee on Saturday.

Hurts won’t feel threatened, nor should he. He’s wired differently than Wentz.

Besides, McKee understands whose team it is.

“I mean, obviously super excited,” he said about Hurts. “I know that he has a lot to bring to the table, especially for a young quarterback like me. I'm excited to be a sponge and learn a lot from a guy like that who's had success at such a high level and so recently. I'm super excited to learn from him.”

McKee said he met Hurts on a recruiting trip to Alabama when Hurts was there as the quarterback.

“I got to learn a little bit from him just for a few days, so I'm excited to actually be in the same quarterback room and to learn a lot from a guy like that,” he said.

McKee came in the sixth round and brings a completely different skill set than what Hurts possesses. The Stanford product is 6-6, 231 pounds, and a pocket passer. He’s here to compete for the third QB spot on the roster with Ian Book.

“We're excited to work with the entire room,” said head coach Nick Sirianni after the draft ended Saturday evening. “I've got a lot of high hopes for Ian Book, too. That's why we brought him in here, and it's going to be good with Ian, he did a lot of scout team reps last year.

“We have a good developmental program where he gets some reps, as well, there, but it's going to be good to see him in the off-season, as well, but looking forward to working with all four guys. We feel really good about that room.”

McKee brings a fairly interesting story with him.

He graduated from high school in California and then went to Brazil on a Latter-day Saints mission. He spent two years there.

“It was, overall, a great experience, a lot of things I got to learn from,” he said. “I would say the biggest thing for me in being a quarterback was just being able to take people from different backgrounds and different cultures and bringing them together for one common purpose, and that's a lot of what you have to do as a quarterback.

“You're in the locker room, whether that's college or the NFL, with a bunch of guys that come from different backgrounds and have different cultures, and you have to bring them together to go out and fight as one.

“I felt like that was something that I got to work on on my mission and can ultimately help me become a better leader and a better teammate, just as I step in the locker room.”

Even before that, however, McKee was tested by adversity.

While in high school, his mother spotted some suspicious moles emerging near his face. He went in for tests and it was discovered he had melanoma, a form of skin cancer, in his forehead.

They removed a section of skin from that area and some lymph nodes.

“Thankfully we caught it super early so nothing spread to any organs, so after they cleared the borders and took out some lymph nodes and everything, everything was good,” he said.

“Now I wear bucket hats. I'm good with sunscreen, but ultimately, very thankful to have a good perspective on life and just really thankful for all the doctors and everybody that's been part of the process. But I'm fully healthy, and I feel great right now.”

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Ed Kracz covers the Philadelphia Eagles for SI's EaglesToday.

Please follow him and our Eagles coverage on Twitter at @kracze.

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