Why former Stanford quarterback Tanner McKee could be one of the ‘biggest mysteries’ of the NFL draft
For former Stanford quarterback Tanner McKee, waiting for the upcoming NFL draft reminds him of a joyous yet nerve-wracking time five years ago, when he was waiting to receive his mission call for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“I’m excited to control what I can and go out and perform to the best of my ability. The only thing I’m worried about is having a shot.” — former Stanford QB Tanner McKee
McKee was assigned to the Brazil Curitiba Mission, where he spent nearly two years serving, learning Portuguese and teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ to the people in the largest nation in South America.
As it turns out, his younger brother, Caden, is expecting to receive his mission call in the next few weeks.
“We’re both in the same spot,” said Tanner, laughing. “Where we’re going to be for the (upcoming) years, nobody knows.”
After leading the Cardinal football program the past two years, McKee, who turns 23 on April 27, decided to forgo his final two seasons of collegiate eligibility to pursue his childhood dream of playing in the NFL.
Where McKee will land is anybody’s guess.
Certainly, the 6-foot-6, 231-pound junior is an intriguing prospect who has had an uncommon journey to this stage of his career.
One mock draft, in January, had McKee coming off the board with the No. 40 overall pick. USA Today has projected him as a fourth-round selection. ESPN draft guru Mel Kiper Jr. rated McKee as the No. 10 overall QB in the 2023 draft class.
The Sporting News’ Vinnie Iyer said McKee is a “classic, strong, big pocket passer with system-versatile sensibility.”
The four-star high school recruit out of Corona, California, (McKee declined scholarship offers from Texas, Alabama and BYU, parents’ alma mater, among many others) returned home from his mission during the pandemic in 2020 and redshirted that fall at Stanford. He played in 10 games in 2021 and 12 games in 2022.
In two seasons, McKee completed 63.2% of his passes and threw for 5,336 yards with 28 touchdowns and 15 interceptions on a Cardinal team that struggled and lacked a strong supporting cast around him. Stanford posted identical 3-9 records in 2021 and 2022.
“The appeal of McKee is what could be, not what he already has been,” according to Sporting News.
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“In terms of McKee, he genuinely seems like one of the bigger mysteries of the draft, as some outlets have him viewed as a late first while others think this past season of work will see him drop dramatically,” according to Sports Illustrated.
What is McKee expecting for draft weekend?
“I have no idea. There are so many opinions from a lot of different people and they vary so much. I know that at some point my name will get called,” McKee told the Deseret News. “I’m excited to control what I can and go out and perform to the best of my ability. The only thing I’m worried about is having a shot.
“Wherever I go, I’m excited to go out and display what I can do on the field, in the locker room and being a teammate and a leader. Honestly, I have no idea when or where I’m going to go. But I’m very excited to take advantage of whatever opportunity comes.”
Hanging with C.J. Stroud, Jaren Hall … and John Beck
As part of his pre-draft preparation, McKee has been working out in Southern California with former BYU and NFL quarterback John Beck, who helps run 3DQB, a company that specializes in elite quarterback training.
Other QBs that McKee is training with include Alabama’s Bryce Young, Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud, Fresno State’s Jake Haener and BYU’s Jaren Hall.
“It’s been a great experience getting to meet those guys and competing with them,” McKee said.
Young and Stroud are expected to go early in the first round of the draft.
Meanwhile, McKee and Hall have formed a strong bond, partly because Hall is also a returned missionary, having served in the California, Roseville Mission.
“It’s been great. We’re both married. We talk about that. He has a little kid so he has more responsibility with that,” McKee said. “But just talking about our missions — he served in Northern California. Stanford wasn’t in his areas but obviously it’s close to where I went to college.
“We share different experiences. We’ve had really good conversations about what our wives are going to do when we go to rookie mini-camp, and training camp and how we’re going to work things out. It’s really fun to connect on a different level with somebody that’s a returned missionary and married.”
And in Beck, McKee has the ideal mentor. Beck, who served in Portugal, became the first returned missionary to start a game at quarterback in the NFL, in 2007, with the Miami Dolphins.
“He’s helped a ton. I’m training with 3DQB. He’s been doing our whole pre-draft process,” McKee said. “We’ve been meeting with Drew Brees and others. He’s bringing these guys in and we’ve been asking him questions. We’re watching film, we go out to the field and throw. He’ll talk about NFL offenses and things that a quarterback is going to have to do and what’s going to be on our plate in the NFL.”
While McKee was on his mission, Beck traveled to Brazil and worked out with McKee and a professional football team in Brazil, the Curitiba Crocodiles. Beck advised McKee about how to try to stay in shape during his mission.
“He’s been a great mentor for me. He’s something that I obviously look up to,” McKee said about Beck. “He’s very respected by me but also by people in the NFL. That’s a really good tool to have.”
While preparing for the draft, McKee has worked hard on making all kinds of throws, including “zipping the ball in smaller windows. The NFL is a really fast game, so being able to drive the ball off your back foot or with a little bit of movement and being able to put it right on the money (is important). Everybody in the NFL is a little bit faster, a little bit bigger and a little bit taller. I’m excited that I’ll have to anticipate things a little bit more and elevate my game.”
The Stanford experience
Entering his junior season last fall, McKee knew that if he and his team had the kind of year he was hoping for, he would likely declare for the draft.
“We didn’t have the record we wanted this season,” he said. Longtime coach David Shaw stepped down in December.
McKee, who had two seasons of eligibility remaining, needed to decide his future. He had “good conversations” with Shaw and quarterbacks coach Tavita Pritchard, as well as agents and others he trusts.
“Ultimately, I made the decision that it was best for me to leave and to live out my dream as an NFL football player,” he said.
McKee loved his time at Stanford and the high expectations — in the classroom and in the football program.
“Once you’re around a lot of people like that and are equally-minded and want to be successful, it really allows you to reach your potential,” he said. “The coaching staff and players were just unbelievable, how much they cared. It was a great experience. Running a pro-style offense and making different calls and shifts and formations, I loved the whole experience.”
One of his highlights on the field was helping Stanford knock off No. 3 Oregon in overtime during the 2021 season. McKee led a two-minute touchdown drive that tied the game and then the game-winning TD drive in overtime.
McKee, an economics major, has three quarters left to graduate.
“I got all my tough classes out of the way. The plan is to hopefully after 12-15 of a long career, I’ll go back and finish my degree,” he said. “I might in the future take classes online. Right now, my main focus is going to be football. We’ll see what happens.”
‘Bouncing around’
Since the 2022 season ended, McKee has been busy preparing for the draft — participating in Stanford’s Pro Day, watching film, working out with Beck and interviewing with various teams.
Last week, McKee spent time with the Los Angeles Chargers, then flew out to Minnesota to meet with the Vikings, and then went to San Francisco to visit the 49ers.
“I’ve been bouncing around all over the place. It’s nice to be back in Southern California and get back into a groove,” he said. “It’s nice to be settled for a couple of weeks before the draft.”
McKee said he has been in contact with “a ton” of NFL teams, including interviews, private workouts and film-watching sessions and throwing on the field. Some of the interviews have been conducted via Zoom.
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“It’s so different because it is like a job interview. You want to perform at the best of your ability. You want to do great in all these interviews,” McKee said. “I honestly feel like Stanford has prepared me so much — coach Shaw, the offense, the verbiage, the checks. I feel awesome. A lot of teams are carbon copies to formations, shifts, protections of what we did at Stanford, which is great.”
During interviews, McKee’s mission invariably surfaces as a topic.
“Pretty much every interview, coaches and staff will ask about how my mission has helped prepare me and changed me,” he said.
As a kid, McKee’s favorite team was the San Diego Chargers — now the Los Angeles Chargers.
“I was a big Chargers fan, just because it was the closest to home. I was a big LaDainian Tomlinson fan,” he said. “I had his jersey. He was my guy growing up. My Pop Warner team in high school was the Corona Chargers. So that kind of also made me a Chargers fan.”
McKee is looking forward to playing professionally, wherever that might be.
“It’s been a dream since I was a little kid to be able to play in the NFL,” he said. “So to fly out and see the Vikings and talk to John Lynch (general manager of the San Francisco 49ers) and talk to these GMs and head coaches, like Brandon Staley of the Chargers, it’s awesome to have that experience. It’s been great. It’s been really busy but I know this time is short-lived and I’m just trying to take it all in right now.”
‘The most Brazilian quarterback in the draft’
Because McKee lived for nearly two years in Brazil, that nation — or, at least, an NFL Brazil social media account — is claiming him as one of its own.
A recent post by that account featured a photo of McKee as a missionary, draped in a Brazilian flag, next to a photo of him playing at Stanford. The post, headlined, “The most Brazilian quarterback in the draft,” said McKee was born and raised in the United States but he has a connection with Brazil because he served a religious mission there.
“The account has a few hundred thousand followers,” McKee said. “They talked about my experience in Brazil and my mission. The Crocodiles talked about going to practice with me. I’ve kept in contact with a lot of those guys. They’ve reached out to me and I’ve reached out to them. They won the championship in 2022. It’s fun to keep in contact with those guys. They keep up with my journey. It’s been great.
“I feel like people can realize what’s important to me — I put everything aside for a couple of years to try to put Heavenly Father first,” he added. “I had 1,000 Brazilians follow me the day they posted that. People were putting Brazilian flags on my posts. It’s fun to scroll through and see hundreds of people — some I did know, some I didn’t know — posting Brazilian flags and wishing me luck and saying, ‘We’ll be watching you.’ It’s fun to have that following and impact on people.”
McKee is looking forward to representing his faith, and Brazil, during his playing career — and beyond.
“A lot of people ask me what I want to do after football. I really don’t know. But I would love to help football grow in Brazil,” he said. “I speak the language and I want to be around the game more. I think it would be really interesting to see how I could help the NFL, or football in general, grow in Brazil. That’s definitely something I’ve thought about. Hopefully, 10-15 years down the road from now. It would be really interesting.”
Draft weekend
McKee is spending NFL draft weekend in Corona with his wife and extended family. He’s planning on watching the draft and passing the time by playing games like Spikeball.
“I want to watch the draft to support the guys we know like C.J. and Bryce, the guys I’ve been training with. They’re going to be taken very early. It will be fun to see them and support them,” he said. “I’m excited because there are so many guys that you get to know throughout the process, either growing up or just training in the pre-draft process. It will be really fun to see a bunch of my buddies get their names called.”
McKee, one of the biggest mysteries of this NFL draft, can’t wait to achieve his dreams by hearing his name called — and embarking on the next chapter of his uncommon journey.
