August 28, 2026
USA TODAY Network/Reuters Connect
Are the Eagles prepared to keep Andy Dalton and two other backup QBs?
Howie Roseman has shown time and time again that he's pretty good at this roster construction thing.
But you really have to squint to see clarity in the Eagles' current backup quarterback situation going into Sunday's roster cutdown deadline.
The Eagles have competed all spring and summer with four quarterbacks. What's obvious is that Jalen Hurts is the starter. What's likely, despite a very iffy preseason, is that Tanner McKee is his backup, again.
What's murky is if this backup situation is any good, and if Roseman also plans to keep two other QBs on the roster.
McKee and Andy Dalton have competed since May for the right to be Hurts' backup, and the competition has been neck and neck down to the last training camp practice and Friday's preseason finale against the Bengals, in which McKee started, wasn't very effective for a half, then handed off to Dalton, who shook off a rough first series before orchestrating an 11-play, 76-yard touchdown drive on his next possession – punctuating the drive with a short play-action touchdown to Britain Covey.
Andy Dalton to Carson Steele for 6️⃣
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At one point, Dalton completed eight straight passes despite the Eagles losing 30-13, a far better showing for him, but still against the third-stringers of the team that drafted him 15 years ago, so nothing really to post on the fridge.
The pendulum had appeared to swing in McKee's favor after last Saturday's preseason game, with McKee replacing a scattershot Dalton against the Patriots and moving the chains much better than he or Dalton had done seven days earlier in the preseason opener against the Ravens.
Dalton, entering his 16th season, should've played better this summer for someone who has nearly two decades of experience, has learned several different offenses, has seen every defense known to man, and has a winning career record in 169 starts.
"That's something that Andy brings to the table," new offensive coordinator Sean Mannion said earlier in the week. "He's a veteran in this league. He's got well over 100 starts. That's unique. It is something unique to Andy with having so much experience, but ultimately, it's an evaluation on the field, both in the practice and the games. That's the driving force."
McKee, learning a radically different system for the first time as a pro, didn't get much help from his supporting cast, getting sacked on his first series, having third-string tight end E.J. Jenkins drop a pass while turning upfield, and later having a decent enough pass somehow get deflected into an interception after hitting first-round rookie wideout Makai Lemon in both hands.
But the fourth-year pro, who used to turn preseason games into a personal showcase, also had his share of unsavory moments, including a bad underthrow to Lemon down the sideline on the opening possession and another later, to Danny Gray, on 3rd-and-11 in a 1-on-1 situation, also down the left sideline.
And then there's the rookie, Cole Payton, an energetic whirlwind of a quarterback whose athleticism and improv are sure fun to watch but is also nowhere near ready to play quarterback in the NFL.
He entered the game against Cincy before Dalton did, but on special teams, actually, as the personal punt protector. That will only fed into the Tayson Hill comp, and the idea that Roseman will bend over backward to keep him on the 53.
Payton has tantalizing athletic traits, and is surely worth hanging onto for developmental purposes.
And there's the rub: Is Roseman really prepared to have four QBs on his 53-man roster?
In a year in which the two-time Super Bowl champion VP could easily be holding onto double-digit offensive linemen and quite possibly two other prospects who are years away from being a year away from playing an NFL game – Africa natives Josh Weru and Uar Bernard – it's almost unfathomable that Roseman would roster an aging, declining quarterback who couldn't outright win the No. 2 job and a fifth-round rookie who needs boatloads of coaching.
There are barely enough reps for QB2 in an average NFL practice. Keeping four is darn near malpractice.
The reason to keep Dalton is insurance for an injury to Hurts or McKee. Last year, McKee fractured his thumb in the middle of training camp, making erratic rookie Kyle McCord the No. 2. Roseman wasted no time trading for veteran Sam Howell, and Howell spent the entire year on the 53 behind Hurts and McKee despite not playing a single snap.
Roseman could potentially waive Payton before the roster cutdown and try to re-sign him to the practice squad, like he did last season with McCord. Doing that would expose the North Dakota State product to waivers, giving any of the 31 other NFL teams a crack at claiming him.
There's a school of thought that quarterbacks are dangerous to expose to waivers, but the Eagles had no problems getting McCord through last year and onto the practice squad after the Syracuse native struggled in the preseason.
Nothing about Payton's preseason – 5-for-12 for 47 yards, garbage time TD pass vs. the Ravens – should lead Roseman to worry that another team would be willing to put him on their 53, but Payton was drafted one round higher than McCord (although just by three overall picks) and those Taysom Hill comps could make it slightly risky to dangle him out there in the unpredictable waiver wilderness.
Roseman understands better than anyone the significance of QB depth, and how just one injury, even to your backup, puts you just one more injury away from disaster at the game's most important position.
That's one reason – perhaps the only reason – Dalton is even here in the first place.
It'll be fascinating to see what kind of wizardry he works in the next 24-72 hours to put the Eagles' roster together, but one thing for certain is that keeping four QBs would be a major head-scratcher.
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