The quarterback in football is like the engine in your car.

You can have all sorts of extras on a car and a shiny paint job waxed to a high shine, but if you don’t have an engine you aren’t going anywhere.

In football, you can have speedy receivers, runningbacks that break tackles and a defensive line that intimidates their opponents, but without a quarterback, you aren’t going anywhere.

They have a quarterback in Philadelphia that led the Eagles to a Super Bowl victory last February over the two-time defending champion Kansas City Chiefs. His name is Jalen Hurts and his job is not in danger. Still, the preseason is a chance for an unexpected star to emerge on the depth chart.

In 2012, the Seattle Seahawks had backed up the Brinks truck to lure Matt Flynn to the Northwest and become their starting quarterback. Then, in the preseason, a third round rookie draft choice couldn’t be denied.

Pete Carroll was in his third season as head coach of the Seahawks and had announced at the beginning of training camp that the quarterback position was open to be won on the field. Most of those around the team figured Carroll’s pre-camp announcement was designed to motivate Flynn, who had a pile of money and the media had already declared the opening day starter.

Then their third-round draft choice out of Wisconsin had a spectacular summer showing and Carroll had to be true to his word. He named Wilson his opening day starter and the process of Flynn becoming a little remembered footnote in NFL history began.

Now, the preseason is not as challenging as the regular season. Opponents are not necessarily designing defenses to stop a team but rather working on what they think they will need to succeed when the games that mean something start. Therefore, sometimes a quarterback can look super in August and not have the stuff to succeed in the regular season.

In 1974, the Pittsburgh Steelers had a rookie that even had a nickname, Jefferson Street Joe Gilliam. The kid looked great in August and in those days the NFL played a six-game preseason schedule so head coach Chuck Noll had plenty of opportunity to evaluate Gilliam. He liked what he saw enough to bench his current starter, Terry Bradshaw, and have Gilliam, an 11th round draft choice, leapfrog Terry Hanratty on the Steelers depth chart and open the season as the Steelers starter.

It started well for the Steelers and Gilliam. He led a 30-0 win over the Baltimore Colts in his first game and put up 35 Pittsburgh points the following week in a game that ended in a tie against the Denver Broncos. Then things began to unravel for the Steelers rookie signal caller. The Oakland Raiders shutout the Steelers on their home field, 17-0, and Gilliam's career as a starter ended three weeks later with Bradshaw being reinserted as the Steelers starter.

The rest, as they say, is history. Bradshaw led Pittsburgh to their first of four Super Bowl wins that season and is in the Hall of Fame, Gilliam was released by Pittsburgh before the 1976 season.

But, while success was short lived for Gilliam, the rookie who won the starting job in Seattle in 2012 did quite well. Wilson guided the Seahawks to a pair of Super Bowls, beating Peyton Manning in his first and just missing downing Tom Brady in his second.

Just as Wilson was special in the 2012 preseason, we got to watch a third-year sixth round draft choice excel beyond expectations in Philadelphia last week. Tanner McKee was picked by the Eagles in the sixth round of the 2023 draft out of Stanford and last week he started the Eagles preseason contest against the Cincinnati Bengals. He took full advantage of the opportunity by leading Philadelphia to scores in five of his six drives.

McKee played the first half and first series of the third quarter and if decisions on the depth chart are made on performance, McKee is the starter in Philadelphia. Okay, he is not going to beat out Hurts, but move into the backup role in front of Kenny Pickett on the depth chart is very likely. So likely, Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni had to announce to the media this week that Pickett is still Hurts' backup.

Yea, when they have to announce that, it’s probably not true.