Birds of a feather: Britain Covey, Tanner McKee share connection that goes beyond the gridiron

Wide receiver/punt return specialist Britain Covey and backup quarterback Tanner McKee are now teammates of the Philadelphia Eagles, but the two were virtually strangers until the draft.

McKee joined the team a year ago, and there has always been a fast and strong friendly rapport which, given how much they share interests, is quite natural.

For instance, Covey holds a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Chile while McKee in Brazil; the two equally have schooled at two different but competitive universities in Utah and Stanford, both from Pac-12 conference; and coincidently both attend to the same church’s Latter-day Saint ward in downtown, Philadelphia.

Despite, Covey standing at 5-foot-8 and going into his third season in the NFL, he is glad to have McKee, who starts his second season with the Eagles, standing at 6-foot-6.

“Tanner’s the best He is a very large boy but is one of the friendliest boys on the team,” the former Utes star said. “It’s always good to have a guy like that on the roster, especially in the quarterback position; you need a guy that’s calm and polished, laid back, and of course Tanner is all of that and a lot of fun as well. ”

Covey and McKee were not friends or even teammates before becoming Eagles, though Covey’s best friend and former football teammate at Timpview High school, Gabe Reid did play with McKee at Stanford University.

Covey and McKee met for the first time when McKee was selected in April in the draft.

“That was a very brief meeting, and thus the process of forming a friendship started,” Covey said.

Thus, because Covey and McKee were both on missions, our teammates have been asking them al kind of questions about what it is like to live in South America for two years.

‘Oh, it comes up all the time,’ Covey said of the service aspect, ‘They love to talk about it,’ The service was also ‘one of the favorite lunch conversation — stories from my mission’. “Most people have never traveled to another country. Tanner and I both like to share stories from the mission and what life is like we talk half in a joking manner though some people have a lot of respect for it and enjoy asking question about the church. ”

Dispelling misconceptions

Covey and McKee consider those conversations as an opportunity to facilitate debriefing and demystification of the church among the audience.

“If you were only to know about Mormonism based on what is available on Netflix; then perhaps, you would even consider us as lunatics”, said Covey. “It is so good to give members of the church a different experience and let people out there know that we are normal , fun people. ”

More talent from the LDS church joined the Eagles during the off season when Kellen Moore was appointed the team’s offensive coordinator.

“He does have a lot of credit across the league and admiration,” Covey said about Moore. “Maybe I will be able to learn a lot from him. ”

This means that Covey and McKee appear in many frames of the film outside of work but still managing to work most of the time. Covey has also found his wife Leah as a friend and same as McKee has found his wife Lauren a friend.

“Yeah that is true, it is fun because young couples are always happy as they explore different things to do together,” Covey said. “As I said, that is what is good with the church because as far as one can see, you have a ready made entourage the moment you move to a new place. ”

Some of the Coveys’ offspring include Nelson Jude whom Lauren has babysat.

“Once (the McKees) have a kid we will do this for them,” Covey said. “Yeah it is great, nothing is worse than go out but only to be paying for the date and also the baby sitter We have many couples in the ward and we always exchange our babies.

“We have a few medical students in our ward and few of them are my friend’s So, we will hang with them and have game nights,” replied McKee. “In the Christmas season, you and I will go outside and admire the Christmas lights. ”

Most of the players on the Eagles’ rosters reside in neighboring New Jersey, however, McKee and Covey opt to reside in Philadelphia.

“We are childless but wished to live in the city and test how it feels like, and yes, we enjoy it,” McKee said. “Everyone here are so diehard Eagles fans it is super fun to be a part of, everyone is in Eagles gear. Being a part of a community so passionate about their teams is fun. Lauren’s friends are mostly the girlfriends and wives on the team and some people from church. She has her own group of friends. ”

Faith and football

I understand, of course, that during the season, where many games are played on Sundays and in the evening, one can hardly go to the sacrament meeting. Covey and McKee do implement Sabbath observance and worship by making them a central part of their routine.

“Obviously, 1 o’clock games means no church, but we had quite a few night games this year,” Covey said. “Technically Tanner and I go to church together, sometimes we go to sacrament meeting, then go straight to the facility and get prepared for the game, that we have done this year four or five times The bishop allows me to take the sacrament if I am in the hotel I am staying in.

McKee and Covey are eagerly anticipating the game the Eagles are slated play Sept. 6 at Corinthians Arena in São Paulo, Brazil against the Green Bay Packers. That will be the first NFL game played at South America region ever in history.

This is the list of starting quarterbacks for the Eagles; Jalen Hurts. To his right is McKee, who inked a four-year deal during the summer, Kenny Pickett, Will Grier.

But first-year Eagles tight end, McKee who was drafted in the sixth round, added that he has end up in the right place.

“Who would have thought? And it is that time of the year for drafting and I was drafted slightly below my expectations I must admit I was a little down,” he said. “But everything actually turned out for the best, being with an unbelievable organization with an incredible owner and great coaches and we are going to play in Brazil, you know we’ve got Kellen Moore, it is going great, it has been a lot of fun and literally I am excited to keep riding.

Big returns

Regarding Covey, he emerged the NFL champion in punt return yardage, tallying a career best of 417 yards in the 2023 nfl season. Purrente ended the season as the only player with two punt returns of 50-plus yards or more while leading the NFL in punt returns of 10-plus yards with 16, returns of 15 plus yards with 13, returns of 20 plus yard with seven and returns of 25 plus yards five assuming this was up from the previous year.

He had been National Football League’s record holder in most punt returns with 62 and most punt returns with yards logged at 725 since the year 2022.

“Of course it is hard to make the squad every year in the NFL, let alone it is going to be another challenge this year,” he said. “But that has been sort of the story of my career, people not believing in me and me proving it wrong I have a lot of confidence that I’ll be able to do that again. ”

They recall that last year, Covey, the team’s most promising talent, sat out the whole preseason due to an injury. They released him and he knew that no other team would take an injured man on the team.

“The next season when I played in a game, two teams contacted me for my services I had to choose between the two – Philadelphia or leave. ” “I decided to stick around and I was given my reward and I was reactivated back to the active squad again , I had a good season, my part was slightly expanded from the previous year; only got to play a couple of snaps at the receivers position but my major duty was with the punt return PDA that I took very serious , ended the season with most return yards in the league and the second best average.

Today Covey can be confident as he is now freshmen of the NFL with couple of seasons to his credit.

“Well my first year I was kind of cautious because you don’t really wanna just come in and change things My second year I think I took it upon myself to do more of that,” he said. “About 10 other guys to my unit and I basically would explain my thought process to them and we would watch a lot of film and get on the same page. I think this year the unit we had was really good, we were very determined to own that. ”

Besides, Covey would like to play more often, especially as a receiver, getting on the field.

“I hope I get more playing time next year,” he said that his fellow veterans on the team urging the coach to give him some play time on offense next year. “They rely on me, which is fine by me, So, I’ll get one or two new guys that I will have to battle with, which is normal, you never know, you own one place and hope for more. I know Jalen has confidence in me as a receiver so I hope that can morph into more next season.

Covey was undrafted free agent who joined the Eagles, He had good rookie season where Philadelphia went to Super Bowl LLVI.

This season the Eagles lost to the Kansas City Chiefs; however he made a tremendous 27-yard punt return in that match.

Covey, while in an interview, was honest enough to say that he was totally spoiled given he was able to play in the Super Bowl as a rookie.

“I said to myself last year,” said the man, ‘I’ll appreciate the Super Bowl once it is over. “I could not do that at the scene. I get tense every time. ”

Philadelphia special teams coordinator Michael Clay knows how much Covey has done for Eagles.

“Britain Covey if he’s played two years as an undrafted free agent and a second-year guy leading the league in yards being up there in average, props to him,” he said. “He just keeps getting better and better; his mentality as a returner is something that is experienced only by a few sports other than pure athletes with immense speed. Obviously, it makes me happy that Britain Covey is in my punt return list. ”

The two charities, Covey and McKee, are expecting to go on influencing the eagles as they pull their suppport for each other, exchange about their mission, and foster their friendship in Philadelphi.