Two Days After "Tanner's Our Guy," the Eagles Reportedly Hand the Keys to Joe Milton

On Monday, a reporter asked Nick Sirianni whether a change at quarterback was on the table. "Tanner's our guy," he said. "We're not making any changes there."

About 48 hours later, by the AP's count, the Eagles told their players in a team meeting that Joe Milton would start Sunday against the Giants, per reports from ESPN and NFL Network and Dallas Goedert's own account. The team had not put it on the record as of Thursday morning.

That's the lead, so let's get the timeline right. On Wednesday, around noon, Sirianni held his regular press conference. A reporter asked what Milton was showing him after about three weeks. Sirianni said Milton had worked hard and that he liked his progression. He did not say "and he's starting Sunday." Less than two hours later, ESPN's Adam Schefter and NFL Network's Mike Garafolo had it. Tight end Dallas Goedert said the team had hoped to keep it quiet until Saturday. "It didn't take long for people to know," he said.

It didn't take the Giants long either. Their coach, John Harbaugh, said his staff heard before they got on the field. "Word travels fast."

Is that a scandal? No. A head coach can change his mind between Monday and Wednesday, and he doesn't owe anybody a scoop. In fairness to Sirianni, the same Monday answer went on to say, "Everything's on the table for us in that aspect," meaning scheme, schedule and practice plays. Asked separately about changes behind the scenes, he said, "of course there is. I won't get into all those." The quarterback was the one thing he said he was not changing. That held for two days.

Fair or not, "our guy" now has a very short shelf life. That's funny. It's also information.

The numbers

Start with the team. The Eagles are 2-6 and have lost six in a row. They're 30th in the league in scoring at 17.1 points a game and 32nd in total offense at 265.3 yards a game (Field Level Media). Their point differential is minus 65 through eight games, which the Inquirer's Jeff Neiburg says they haven't had this deep into a season since 1998.

Now the quarterbacks.

Sources: NFL.com, NBC Sports Philadelphia, Field Level Media, ESPN. Yards per attempt is our arithmetic.

McKee's 5.6 is poor. It's also three games with a line that has allowed pressure on 42.6 percent of dropbacks, the fourth-worst rate in the league (Next Gen Stats, via the Inquirer), and, in two of the three, without DeVonta Smith and Dontayvion Wicks, by Inquirer columnist Marcus Hayes's count. Smith and Wicks did sit out the Washington loss, per Eagles.com. Hayes also has McKee sacked 10 times. Goedert, to his credit, said it plainly: "I don't think he played terrible. I think they're trying to do anything to find a spark."

The Eagles scored 15.0 points a game with McKee (45 in three games, our math from ESPN's scores). In the five games before his first start, they scored 18.4 (92 in five, same math). So yes, it dropped. It was also not good before. A drop of 3.4 points a game (our math, 15.0 vs. 18.4) on an offense that was already near the bottom isn't a quarterback story by itself.

Yeah but Milton's line looks great. Yeah, and 241 of his 424 career yards, 57 percent by our math, came in one game, the Patriots' Week 18 game in January 2025, when he went 22 of 29 (NFL.com). In his last game, Dallas's finale at the Giants, he was 7 of 13 for 73 yards and an interception (AP). Fifty-three attempts is a small pile of evidence. It's all anyone has.

The question

So, real fix or panic button?

Here's the case for a fix. Milton is 6-foot-5, 236 pounds, and he moves. NFL.com's Kevin Patra says his legs "should help an offense that has struggled to block and suffered far too many stalled drives." Receivers can't stop talking about the arm. "He zips it," Darius Cooper told NBC Sports Philadelphia. Goedert said he has "a cannon of an arm." Those are teammates being kind to a new guy, so weigh them accordingly. But they're the people catching the ball.

Here's the case for a panic button. It's reportedly the Eagles' third different starter this season (ESPN). The backup plan out of camp was Andy Dalton, who was demoted after one throw, an interception, against the Bears and was later released (NBC Sports Philadelphia). The next one, McKee, got three starts. Milton arrived off a practice squad on Oct. 16, took the backup job from rookie Cole Payton in about a week, and is now reportedly the starter three weeks in (NBC Sports Philadelphia).

Nobody plans for a starting quarterback with blood clots in his lungs. Jalen Hurts has been on injured reserve since Oct. 17 and visited the facility Wednesday, per ESPN. But the backup job is the one you plan for, and this is a lot of improvising for one position.

What to watch Sunday

The Giants are 4-2-1 and coming off a bye. Kickoff is 1 PM ET on FOX.

1. The pressure rate. Milton's legs are the pitch. His line is the problem. The Eagles are tied for the league low in yards before contact on runs, at 0.7 (Sharp Analytics, via the Inquirer). The Giants' pass rush rates 20th at a 34.2 percent pressure rate without Brian Burns, who's out for the season (Next Gen, via the Inquirer). Their edge rushers, Abdul Carter and Kayvon Thibodeaux, are the ones offensive coordinator Sean Mannion singled out. Carter missed Wednesday with an illness. If Milton is still under pressure on four of every ten dropbacks, McKee wasn't the whole story.
2. The receivers and Saquon Barkley. Smith, Wicks and Barkley did not practice Wednesday, per Eagles.com. Barkley played 22 snaps in Washington on hamstring and back injuries.
3. How the offense changes. Does Milton run? Does Mannion, who Sirianni said Monday is staying as play-caller, lean on the deep shot the arm allows? A first start tells you what the staff thinks he can do.
4. The Michigan reunion. The Giants' J.J. McCarthy started his career at Michigan, same as Milton. McCarthy called him "J Milly" and said he loves the guy (AP). The Giants are looking for their first win in Philadelphia since 2013, a streak Harbaugh says he doesn't care about.

Our take

It's a reasonable gamble, and it's the easiest one on the board. Nobody has to fix a protection scheme to try the strong-armed guy. Milton might be good. He might also be one more starter on an offense that has scored fewer points than any other NFC team, 137 through eight games (Inquirer). The only way to know the difference is to watch Sunday.

Marcus Hayes argues in the Inquirer that McKee is the scapegoat. He's right that the line and the coaching deserve their share. We'd add that McKee's 5.6 yards per attempt is hard to defend even so.

If Milton throws for 300 behind a line that gives him time, that's a fix. If he does it running for his life, that's a quarterback who is great at running for his life. We'll have a read by Sunday evening.

Tommy Vale writes about Philadelphia sports for Negadelphia.