Thumbs up or down on the Eagles drafting QB Kyle McCord? Our writers weigh in.

The Eagles selected Syracuse quarterback Kyle McCord in the sixth round of the NFL draft with the 181st overall selection. Here’s how our writers evaluate the pick:

In theory, drafting a quarterback every year — like former Packers general manager Ron Wolf once suggested — is smart. The position has so much worth relative to others that even a seventh-round gamble (see: Brock Purdy) can pay off in dividends. Evaluators have gotten so good at their jobs, however, that few potential starters slip through the cracks. You can find backups with upside in the latter rounds, though, and the Eagles seemingly hit on one just two years ago when they took Tanner McKee in the sixth round. The Clayton Thorson fifth-round experiment five years earlier had a much worse result. He failed to make the roster. But the Eagles, armed with 13 picks this year, pulled the quarterback trigger again in the fifth round by taking McCord.

So why add another pocket passer when you have McKee? Well, for one, McKee is under contract for only another two years and projects as someone another team may be willing to trade for as a starter, and if not, maybe pay for when he hits free agency. The Eagles are playing the long game here a bit, but if McCord develops in a year, they may feel comfortable dealing Jalen Hurts’ current backup if the return is significant. I’m not saying that was the primary reason Howie Roseman selected McCord. The Eagles clearly think that he has NFL traits, even if it took a transfer year at Syracuse to get the St. Joseph’s Prep product back on track.

McCord wasn’t close to bad at Ohio State. He got knocked some because he failed to thrive despite all the talent around him. But the throws were there. He just struggled in some big moments. And maybe needed a change of scenery and to work in a pass-happy offense. McCord displayed a quick trigger and accuracy at Syracuse. He might not have been going up against top defensive talent on a regular basis, but you don’t throw for nearly 5,000 yards by accident. McCord has arm talent. His mechanics are a little funky. And I’d worry about his immobility. But if he’s an astute reader of coverages and can keep his eyes downfield in the pocket, he can thrive in any offense. I’ve had the benefit of seeing him during a few spring practices and I like what I’ve seen so far, although it’s hard to draw conclusions when McCord’s yet to see a live rush. But the draft pick was a rational one. It’s now up to the Eagles to develop him. They have a strong track record.

McKee may not be around forever — his rookie deal ends after the 2026 season — so it’s easy to see why the Eagles brought another young quarterback into the room.

McCord led FBS football with an ACC-record 4,779 passing yards during his lone season at Syracuse after three seasons at Ohio State. The former St. Joseph’s Prep star did more with less at Syracuse and raised his draft stock in the process. He’s got arm strength and experience in a pro-style offense.

» READ MORE: Kyle McCord found a home at Syracuse. Here’s how the ‘Camden Orange’ prepared him for the NFL.

His knocks are his lack of mobility, inconsistent ball placement, and a reputation he developed for being a gunslinger. McCord, however, did not throw an interception over his final five games after throwing 12 in his first eight.

It’s hard to predict what happens next. Will McCord be the next Thorson, or the next McKee? Regardless of the answer, for as long as the Eagles have a top-of-the-market type of quarterback like Hurts, they should probably routinely be trying to backfill the room with a late-round pick. Any success with a pick like that means you can save financial resources by not having to allocate a higher percentage of cap money to a position that doesn’t see the field in a perfect world.

The other side of that is the fact that Hurts, who has been rather durable, has missed some time. Backup quarterbacks are important, and no city knows that fact better than this one.

Will McCord develop into the type of player the Eagles feel comfortable plugging into a game and expecting to win the way they do with McKee? They have plenty of time to find out. Thumbs up for trying.

The Eagles’ quarterback factory is alive and — potentially — well. Even with Hurts solidified as the franchise starting quarterback, adding a late-round prospect at the position makes plenty of sense. With Hurts making $51 million per year, the Eagles need low-cost backup options behind him.

McKee fit the bill back in 2023 as the team’s sixth-round pick out of Stanford. Ideally, McCord would follow a similar trajectory as McKee did, developing as a third- or fourth-string quarterback before assuming the primary backup role in the future.

Was McCord the right guy to take in that spot? Only time will tell, but the Eagles are justified in their optimism surrounding the 6-foot-3, 218-pound rookie.

Stylistically, McCord leans more McKee than he does Hurts. Mobility isn’t his calling card. His ability as a pocket passer, though, is far more intriguing, as evidenced by his 4,779 passing yards and 391 completions (both were best in the nation last year). Plus, he accomplished those feats at Syracuse, which doesn’t exactly boast the same weapons as Ohio State did.

McCord will be fun to follow in training camp as he competes for a spot on the initial 53 with Dorian Thompson-Robinson. The younger quarterback had an impressive minicamp on Tuesday, completing one of the best throws of the day — a tight-window touchdown pass to tight end Nick Muse in the back of the end zone. We’ll see if McCord has more in store next month and beyond.

» READ MORE: Familiarity with Eagles extends well beyond location for QB draft pick Kyle McCord

My typical instinct for most Day 3 picks is to give the proverbial “shrug,” but I’m going to focus more on the Eagles’ philosophy here rather than point out what should be obvious: There’s a high level of variance in the latter rounds of the draft and expectations for players like McCord should be tempered as a result.

Speaking specifically about the process that led to the Eagles prioritizing McCord as a sixth-round prospect, it’s hard to quibble with the thinking. A similar line of thought was behind the decision to draft McKee two seasons ago, which has now given the Eagles the luxury of a low-cost backup quarterback behind Hurts. McCord certainly has the upside to eventually develop into something similar for the Eagles. He’s an accurate passer who has already shown a capability of adapting to a scheme change thanks to his transfer from Ohio State to Syracuse.

Still, for every McKee taken in the final few rounds, there is usually a Thorson or two, and which end of the spectrum McCord falls on could be apparent pretty quickly. McKee hit the ground running in his first preseason and has never looked back, whereas Thorson struggled through his first training camp and was waived on cut-down day just a few months after the Eagles took him in the fifth round of the 2019 NFL draft as a result.

Either way, the quarterback factory will keep churning, and it’s hard to fault the team for that.