LONDON — The Eagles have released veteran quarterback Andy Dalton ahead of their Week 5 game in London against the Jaguars.
Dalton, 38, began the season as the team’s backup quarterback after competing for the position all summer, but has since lost that role and is now completely released. NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo also reported that Dalton could find his way back to the Eagles’ practice squad.
With a bunch of injuries piling up, the Eagles need roster spots and having four quarterbacks on the 53-man roster was no longer tenable. The Eagles signed RB Carson Steele and C Jake Majors to the active roster on Friday.
The Eagles will move forward with Tanner McKee and Cole Payton as backup quarterbacks behind Jalen Hurts.
Because Dalton was the Eagles’ backup quarterback to start this season, he took the field in Chicago for a few snaps when Jalen Hurts was being evaluated for a concussion in the second quarter. If this is the end for Dalton in an Eagles uniform, his only pass with the team was a costly goal-line interception in Week 3’s 27-7 loss.
Later in the week, head coach Nick Sirianni was asked if he still liked Dalton as a backup quarterback.
“I have a lot of confidence in both of those guys,” Sirianni said. “Obviously what happened in the game, we don’t want turnovers from anyone. Whether it was that one, whether it was Jalen’s interception, whether it was Tank (Bigsby’s) fumble, that hasn’t been our winning formula. We can’t turn the ball over, and we did it in a situation and gave up points. I still have confidence in Tanner (McKee). I still have confidence in Andy. I still like the way Cole (Payton) evolves. I still like this play.
The following week, Sirianni reportedly demoted Dalton and assigned McKee to be his replacement. The Eagles had these two competing for the backup job all training camp and neither could really separate themselves. The Eagles ultimately settled on Dalton, who has 169 career starts under his belt.
But McKee, 26, has a better arm and more upside. It took him a little longer to learn this new offense, but he seemingly outperformed Dalton for much of training camp, which made the initial decision curious.
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