While the Carolina Panthers and Philadelphia Eagles are both entering Week 6 with two wins, they somehow find themselves in very different positions in their respective conferences.
Coming off the rare Week 4 bye, the Panthers split each of their first two series to start off the season, falling short to the Chicago Bears and Cleveland Browns while securing big wins over the Atlanta Falcons and the Detroit Lions. They're averaging 30.25 points per game, the fourth-best mark in football, but have struggled to keep opposing teams off the scoreboard too, with Dave Canales' squad allowing the seventh-most points per game of any team in the league at 27.25.
And as for the Eagles? Well, it's hard to say anything is going well for the Birds at this point in the season.
Lane Johnson? Retired. Cam Jurgens? Traded to the Ravens. Saquon Barkley has missed time, as has DeVonta Smith – even if he's good to go in Week 6 – and the man tasked with running the show, Jalen Hurts, was just placed on injured reserve with superficial blood clots that have begun to move after Week 5's game in London.
With Tanner McKee now firmly in the driver's seat of an offense that has struggled to get much of anything going consistently and a defense that can't seem to rush the passer at all, can the Eagles take down a Panthers team that is well rested after beating the Lions in Week 4? That is certainly the question pestering fans in the City of Brotherly Love after a month of athletic disappointment.
Tanner McKee throws for more yards than any 2026 Jalen Hurts start
Over five games of action in 2026, the Eagles' offense has been as disappointing as ever.
While Hurts has done his best to put his team in the best position to win, holding a lead in the fourth quarter in all but one of his starts despite having a rotating cast of weapons from week to week, the passing game ranks 27th in the NFL, the run game ranks 23rd, and the offense as a whole sits 29th in points scored and 30th in total offensive yards accumulated.
Averaging just 186.6 passing yards per game, Hurts has only thrown for over 250 yards once this season, going for 264 against the Tennessee Titans in Philly's most recent win all the way back in Week 2. Hurts threw for 203 in Week 1, 153 in Week 3, just 93 in Week 4 – albeit because of an ill-fated call to only run the ball for much of the second half – and 220 in Week 5 despite having the blood clot issue in his calf.
On paper, going from Hurts to McKee is a downgrade pretty much across the board in terms of experience, mobility, and command of the offense, but one area where the “Mormon Missile” has historically succeeded at a better rate than QB1 is as a passer.
Over his career, Hurts has averaged 192.1 yards per game as a passer, with his high watermark coming all the way back in 2022, when he threw for an average of 246.7 per game. In games where McKee started, one in 2024 and another in 2025, McKee has averaged 255 passing yards per game, showcasing a serious thrust in his arm from the pocket.
Now granted, during the preseason, McKee didn't look particularly sharp for the Eagles, to the point where Howie Roseman kept Andy Dalton on the 53-man roster heading into the regular season. If McKee dominated in Sean Mannion's offense during the preseason, he might not even be on the roster right now, as his trade candidacy was the worst-kept secret in the Delaware Valley.
Fortunately for Philly fans, McKee is still on the roster, and Dalton is not, and because he spent 2026 as a reserve, he has a built-in rapport with players like Darius Cooper, Damion Pierce, and Makai Lemon. Because the Eagles will likely be playing from behind against the Panthers, McKee will likely have a chance to throw the ball early and often, so don't be surprised if he eclipses Hurts' season high in his 2026 debut.
Bryce Young torches the Eagles' pass defense for over 300 yards
Though there's a chance McKee could throw for 250, 260, or even more yards in Week 6, one thing is clear: Bryce Young is a borderline lock to throw for over 300 yards.
Averaging the most passing yards per game of any quarterback in the NFL at 317, Young's lowest passing total of 2026 is just 287 yards in Week 2 against the Atlanta Falcons, with the 25-year-old Alabama passer going for 361 yards in Week 1 against the Bears, 291 yards in Week 3 against the Cleveland Browns, and 329 yards against the Detroit Lions in Week 4. To make matters all the more impressive, Young is being very effective with his passing too, throwing for nine touchdowns versus just two interceptions while completing just 62.3 percent of his passes.
Article Continues BelowOn the season, the Eagles are allowing the seventh-most passing yards of any team in the NFL, surrendering 238.8 yards per game, but over the past three games, things have escalated to a dire degree, with third-stringer Case Keenum throwing for 247 yards in Week 3, Matthew Stafford throwing for 309 in Week 4, and Trevor Lawrence going for 306 in Week 5.
Sitting one spot above Stafford in average passing yards per game in 2026, Young has a chance to do some serious damage against an Eagles defense that can't rush the passer particularly well and has multiple players dealing with injuries like Jihaad Campbell, Marcus Epps, Michael Carter II, and Jalyx Hunt.
Howie Roseman has a chance to evaluate Eagles talent in a likely loss
In the first five games of the season, securing a win has been the Eagles' primary goal in a very winnable NFC East.
Sitting at 2-3, Philly is somehow just 1.5 games back in the division thanks to a very silly Week 5 tie between the New York Giants and the Washington Commanders, but is a doomed playoff berth really what the Eagles should be shooting for at this point in the season? Hurts is on IR and could miss anywhere from a month to the rest of the season, depending on how his clot situation progresses. The offensive line keeps shuffling around, as have the offensive weapons in general, and Roseman very well could end up trading more players from Philly's last Super Bowl roster after showing Jurgens the door earlier in the season.
Could McKee take down Young and the Panthers, showing that maybe Hurts was simply incompatible with Mannion's preferred offensive system? Sure, that's absolutely possible, and considering how the season has progressed thus far, that feels oddly likely, but as the Eagles prepare to take a step into a new era where the Johnsons, Jurgens, and AJ Browns of the world are no longer part of their core, finding out if players like Cooper, Jeremiah Trotter Jr., Willie Lampkin, and Ty Robinson can be full-time starters in 2027 might just be better than a Week 6 win in 2027.