5 Kenny Pickett replacements the Eagles should have ready in case of Jalen Hurts emergency

At the end of the Philadelphia Eagles Week 1 game, the Packers quarterback Jordan Love went down with some kind of non-season-ending knee sprain. At some point during the Buffalo Bills’ game, Josh Allen did something gnarly to his wrist on his non-throwing hand. 

Injuries happen and they can change things quickly. Given the number of quarterback injuries, the Eagles' plan for an inevitable move from Kenny Pickett is probably something to at least keep in the back of your mind. A Jalen Hurts replacement isn't a fun topic to broach, but let’s give it a shot. 

Pickett is currently the Eagles QB2. He absolutely stinks and if he has any sort of prolonged meaningful play time, the Eagles are going to realize it and make a change. There’s an obvious choice for who would replace Pickett, but the Eagles shouldn’t feel limited.

The Prince who was Promised, Tanner McKee

Tanner McKee has been pretty good for the majority of the preseason games that he’s played in. That being said, he could be (but probably isn’t) a preseason hero. In the NFL, that happens. Hell, Pickett was a preseason hero in Pittsburgh.

McKee is obviously the top choice given that he’s been on the team for the last two years, he knows the quarterback room, he’s moderately familiar with Kellen Moore’s offense, and we’ve seen him spin it. 

The problem is that you could compare him to Gardner Minshew in 2022. Yes, he’s a capable backup, but his playstyle is entirely different from Jalen’s. When that’s the case, you have to burn pages of the playbook. Luckily, the Eagles offense doesn’t look like it’s going to be super dependent on having the quarterback be a plus-one in the run game anymore, so a playstyle change shouldn’t be as exaggerated as it was back in 2022. 

The 2022 Pro Bowler, Tyler “Snoop” Huntley

If you take anything away from all of this, just know that being a Pro Bowler means nothing. In 2022, Huntley was voted as the fourth alternate for the AFC. He ended up making the team after Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow, and Josh Allen all chose to decline their Pro Bowl invitations.

In that season Huntley played five games for the Ravens while Lamar Jackson had a messed up knee. He won just three of those games. The funny thing about it is that the first game he started was less than three weeks before Pro Bowl voting ended. What’s better than that, is that Huntley didn’t throw his first touchdown until after he was voted in. It’s all a racket.

That being said, Huntley isn’t a bad backup. He was able to run the Raven’s offense and ultimately get the team to the playoffs (it’s not important what he did in the playoffs).

The big takeaway is that Tyler Huntley is a veteran backup who has a skill set that is more akin to Jalen Hurts compared to McKee. That doesn’t mean Huntley is better than McKee, it just means the playbook would be more open. Also, he’s a Pro Bowler or whatever.

The development, Jaren Hall

If the Eagles don't trust McKee to have a definitive QB2 role, then when will they? What more do they need to see? Maybe it never happens and they keep the conveyor belts of the ‘QB Factory’ moving. 

If that’s the case, maybe they get a guy they’ve seen some good out of, like Jaren Hall. He’s currently on the Seahawks practice squad, but we saw him dice up an Eagles’ preseason defense this year as a Viking. 

In the third preseason game, he was 17-of-25 for 189 yards and two touchdowns. Now, that was kind of an outlier of a performance for him, and we would all shake our heads in dismay and it would be an incredibly frustrating season, but you could see the logic in that kind of acquisition.

The UFL guy, Adrian Martinez

Adrian Martinez was the All-UFL quarterback and UFL Championship MVP. In that league, he was able to operate the Birmingham Stallions’ offense at a high level. Martinez definitely has some arm talent and is pretty shifty on his legs too. 

He’s on the Jets’ practice squad right now, and if recent history tells us anything, it’s that Aaron Rodgers will get hurt (whether it be a bunch of minor things or one huge thing) and Tyrod Taylor will get stabbed in the chest by an overzealous trainer. 

Adrian might get playing time in the NFL at some point this season, and when he does he’ll show that he can be an efficient quarterback in the NFL. If the Eagles could get him in a dire situation, it wouldn’t necessarily be the worst thing in the world.

The most fun quarterback in the NFL, Jameis Winston

This could easily be outdated in the next week or two, but if the Browns somehow don’t bench Deshaun Watson after all of the terrible play and awful things off the field, that means they never will and they’ll just have Jameis Winston sitting there and rotting on their bench.

If that’s the case, the most fun thing the Eagles could possibly do is trade for Jameis, the world’s best locker-room glue guy and top-tier mayhem-causing quarterback in the league.

Would it be good? Absolutely not. Would it be an awesome alternative to watching Kenny Pickett? No doubt. Just for a second, imagine Jameis launching one of his patented 50-50 balls downfield to A.J. Brown. You have no idea who’s coming down with that ball, but that would be the excitement. The chaos that leaves his arm outdoes any amount of talent on the field. 

The season would be a tremendous waste of time, but it would be more fun than watching Kenny Pickett try his hardest and fail over and over and over again. Jameis rocks and every team in the NFL would be better if he was on their roster.

Think about a Jameis Winston pre-game pep-talk: ‘E-A-G-L-E-S. You know what that spells? That spells us. That spells team. That spells a team, a city that demands effort, work. That’s us. We are work. Is this gonna hurt? Of course. Are we gonna hit some adversity? Definitely. But remember one thing: Eagles. Those are birds. Birds can fly. A Bengal? That’s a cat. Last time I checked, cats can’t fly. You fly high, you win. Win on three…’