Familiarity with Eagles extends well beyond location for QB draft pick Kyle McCord

This week has felt like summer camp for Kyle McCord, he said Friday. None of this seems real yet. It’s Eagles rookie minicamp, and McCord is still getting used to being an NFL quarterback for his hometown team.

He is not in an unfamiliar place like most of the other players in camp, and so the drive from Mount Laurel being the commute for his first real NFL job is going to take some getting used to. The Eagles selected McCord out of Syracuse with one of their sixth-round draft picks last week, and being home brings a lot of familiarity for McCord, who starred at St. Joseph’s Prep before beginning his college career at Ohio State.

It’s not just the location and team that’s comforting for McCord, it’s also first-year quarterbacks coach Scot Loeffler. How’s this for a world-is-small or fate-like result? When McCord was between eighth grade at Thomas E. Harrington Middle School and his freshman season at the Prep, Loeffler was the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Boston College. Loeffler was the first coach and Boston College the first school to offer McCord a scholarship before he even threw a high school pass.

But McCord didn’t get the news right away. Gabe Infante, then Prep’s coach, didn’t think McCord deserved to know yet, McCord said, so he waited until after his freshman season to tell him.

Eight years later, McCord and Loeffler are finally in the same building. McCord said Loeffler was one of the voices on the other end of the phone when the Eagles called him to inform him they were going to pick him.

“Hearing his voice I was like, ‘Oh man, that’s crazy, seeing how far we’ve come,’” McCord said.

» READ MORE: ‘Surreal moment’: Eagles select QB Kyle McCord in the NFL draft, adding the St. Joseph’s Prep product

Their work began in earnest this week. McCord is the only quarterback in rookie camp for the Eagles, so he looked a little lonely during individual drills Friday afternoon. The playbook won’t be too difficult to pick up, McCord said, since he was accustomed to a lot of pro concepts at Ohio State and Syracuse. With the Orange, McCord threw more than 45 passes per game and led the nation in passing yards. All of those throws will prove valuable as he adjusts to the NFL, he said.

“We saw pretty much every single coverage you could think of at the collegiate level,” McCord said. “Obviously you’re not going to be throwing the volume that we did necessarily but you’re going to see a lot of different coverages and it’s going to force you to make good reads and be smart with the ball.”

McCord arrived at the NovaCare Complex on Thursday and said he met Jalen Hurts, who McCord said texted him right after the Eagles selected him last Saturday.

“I just want to be a sponge around him and soak up as much as I can,” McCord said.

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He’ll lean on the experience from his early years at Ohio State, where he was behind C.J. Stroud on the depth chart. Stroud, McCord said, was like an open book and he’ll approach learning from Hurts by both approaching him with questions and watching Hurts work.

“Everything I can pick up from him I’m going to try to do that,” McCord said.

It remains to be seen where McCord slots on the depth chart. Tanner McKee seems like the obvious No. 2 behind Hurts, and it’s unclear if McCord is QB3 or if he’ll be behind Dorian Thompson-Robinson.

There is plenty of time for all of that to sort itself out. For now, McCord is starting life as an NFL quarterback in the place where his football journey started, and with a coach who first noticed and rewarded his talent.

While McCord and Loeffler didn’t link up in college, the two kept in touch, even as Loeffler became the head coach at Bowling Green. Loeffler, McCord said, is one of the few college coaches that he didn’t play for that he remained in contact with. They spoke about three times this past season while McCord was at Syracuse and Loeffler was unknowingly in his final season at Bowling Green. Loeffler, McCord said, gave him advice and congratulated him on his success.

Then, during the draft process, after Loeffler was hired by the Eagles, the two got on a Zoom call and watched film together.

“Obviously you have no idea where you’re going at the point,” McCord said. “It’s crazy to see it come full circle.”

McCord was one of four Eagles draft picks to sign their first contracts with the team Friday.

The others: Linebacker Smael Mondon Jr., who was a fifth-round pick, and sixth-round picks Myles Hinton (OT) and Antwaun Powell-Ryland (edge).