The backup quarterback is the most popular guy in town around the football landscape. That may be true in some locales, but Philadelphia is the only place where they build statues for QB2s, where they became "our babies" and where they time and time again save the day.
Why do the Eagles continue to have success with their backup signal-callers across coaching regimes and a plethora of different players?
Sure, there's an intangible "Only in Philly!" chaos element that you're lying if you don't believe in, but, ultimately, credit a first-rate organization that properly understands positional value.
It starts in the trenches.
Know what's really boring for the casual fan? The Eagles drafting offensive linemen with Day 1 and Day 2 picks incessantly for the last two-plus decades. Know what's not boring? The Birds being almost always good for the last two-plus decades.
There are occasional misfires like the disaster of firefighter Danny Watkins, but the success of early picks Lane Johnson, Landon Dickerson and Cam Jurgens, plus late diamonds in the rough like Jason Kelce and Jordan Mailata speak for themselves. Even outside of the draft, the Eagles have poured trade and contract resources into the line with guys over the decades like Jon Runyan, Brandon Brooks, Jason Peters and more.
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The only quarterback who has had a legitimate half-decade run of great play in midnight green is Donovan McNabb. Everything and everyone else has been cluttered with injuries, McNabb included, and controversy. Thank the o-line.
Nick Foles started a whopping six games as a backup quarterback across three different seasons with the Eagles. Yes, he's the personification of luck, a mix of big-game chops and utter randomness, but the Birds also had the best offensive line in the sport in 2013, 2017 and 2018 when he was suiting up in the postseason. Foles dropped dimes with his seven-touchdown game, flea flicker scores and, of course, everything that transpired on the night of Feb. 4, 2018, but playing behind so many Pro Bowlers and future Hall of Famers made a hell of a difference.
Beyond the continuously elite o-line play is the quarterback factory of it all.
Howie Roseman's initial "quarterback factory" comments were derided at the time in 2020, but they were true before he made them, as Super Bowl LII indicated clearly, and just as true in the Eagles' Week 17 shellacking of the hated Dallas Cowboys.
It's good to have talented QB2s!
When McNabb had a season-ending injury in the 2005 season, following four-consecutive NFC Championship Game appearances, the team went out and added former Pro Bowler Jeff Garcia to be a backup in the ensuing offseason. When McNabb was lost again for the year in 2006, Garcia stepped up to the plate and delivered a memorable divisional championship run, going 5-1 as a starter and winning a playoff game, too.
The Eagles controversially added Michael Vick, who was really the face of the entire sport for a hot minute before his own personal downfall, to work behind McNabb ahead of the 2009 campaign. More than a year later, he was making miracles happen during the most memorable Birds regular season game ever and led the Eagles to their first NFC East title in four years.
The Birds drafted Foles in the third round even with some of the highs Vick had displayed in his Eagles tenure. The following year, he threw 27 touchdowns against just two interceptions, had the team back in the playoffs and somehow won Pro Bowl MVP along the way.
When Carson Wentz established himself as the franchise guy here, the Eagles brought back Foles as an insurance plan in 2017 and that worked out in a Delaware Valley-transforming, life-affirming fashion.
Hey, Jalen Hurts himself was drafted to be a backup QB. The thought process when the Eagles used a second-round pick on Hurts was that the best-case scenario was that he'd never see the field. It turns out the best-case scenario for him was a four-TD day in the Super Bowl.
Kenny Pickett burned out in Pittsburgh, but he was a first-round pick going 14-10 as a starter in two years with the Steelers. The price the Eagles paid to trade for him this past offseason felt steep, but no one is complaining now given that Pickett helped his favorite childhood football team wrap up the NFC East in dominating fashion.
There's Tanner McKee, too. He doesn't have the pedigree of these other quarterbacks, but when you stick a competent, accurate quarterback behind an outstanding offensive line with this collection of skill position talent, good things are probably going to happen like they did in Sunday's win.
Philadelphia media and fans alike may feed on backup quarterback drama, but it's because of how this franchise has correctly built its rosters that this type of success prevails.
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