Philadelphia Eagles’ backup quarterback Tanner McKee made the creators of Madden 26 look like fools on Thursday night.
McKee, who received a rating of 61, finished the Eagles’ 34-27 preseason win over the Bengals, completing 14 of 17 passes for 193 yards and two touchdowns with zero interceptions. He also successfully scored another touchdown while running the Eagles’ famous Tush Push play.
Following the win, McKee was asked about his Madden rating and if he believed he deserved a higher score.
McKee stayed way too humble with his response.
“I mean, we’ll see,” he said. “We’ll let them decide. I’ve had a lot of people come up to me and say, ‘Nice job 61’ or whatever it was, so it’s been a funny joke.”
McKee, who was drafted in the sixth round of the 2023 NFL Draft and spent last fall as Philly’s emergency No. 3 QB, turned heads during the final stretch of the 2024 season for the Eagles, throwing for 323 yards, four touchdowns, with no picks and an impressive 66.7% completion rate.
The Eagles ended up trading QB2 Kenny Pickett away earlier this year, leaving McKee to back up Jalen Hurts heading into OTAs and training camp. And it’s obvious that they’re pleased with the decision they made.
“He played pretty good,” Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni said with a smirk and laugh when asked how he thought McKee played against Cincy. “He did a lot of good things. Went to the right place with the football …was accurate … had really good operation. Him and Kevin [Patullo] … a lot of communication. Yeah, he did a really nice job.”
With the Eagles resting their starters, we’ll get to see a lot more from McKee in Philly’s final two preseason matchups against the Cleveland Browns next week and the New York Jets after that.