5 Eagles Most Likely to Be Inactive vs. Buccaneers on Monday Night Football

3. Tanner McKee

Tanner McKee makes the list of likely inactives once again, but not because of anything he’s done. Rather, it’s just smart roster gymnastics.

Teams are only allowed to dress 48 players from their 53-man active roster on game days. Given this extra crunch, squads often passed on having an emergency quarterback on hand behind their starter and backup.

Then the whole NFC Championship-San Francisco 49ers fiasco happened, and the NFL decided to implement a third-QB rule. Now franchises can dress a QB3 without spending a gameday roster spot on them.

They aren’t allowed to play unless both quarterbacks in front of them are taken out of the game due to injuries (and not performance-related reasons), but it’s still a great insurance policy to have in case the unimaginable happens.

So even by making McKee inactive, he’ll still be in uniform and on standby for the Eagles throughout the season (or at least as long as they keep him on the 53-man roster). Then Philadelphia can make someone else active to provide depth at other positions, rather than spending that spot on the Stanford product.

Considering how the undrafted rookie played this preseason, he’s arguably one of the best third QBs to have in case tragedy strikes.