Just yesterday it was reported by Ian Rappaport that Nick Foles will start week 1 for the Eagles. It wasn’t surprising, but it was still disappointing to hear. For all the hype we’ve been hearing about how Wentz looks in practice and the numerous videos of him running around during warm ups of the preseason games, I definitely thought Wentz had a solid chance to be the opening day starter.
I want to see Wentz out there, just like everyone else I’m sure. But we all need to calm down a bit and look at the bigger picture here. If Foles has to play a few games to start this season it’s not the end of the world. He’s the best backup quarterback in the league and if you’re not convinced of that by now then I don’t know what to tell you.
I know he had a terrible preseason, and I can somewhat understand the concern that’s stemming from that. But seriously, why does anyone care about what we see during the preseason? Especially Eagles fans.
Anyone remember Chip’s last year with the Eagles? A complete disaster, right? Well, if you would’ve based your Super Bowl prediction that year solely on preseason play, you would’ve picked the Eagles to win it all hands down. Sam Bradford looked like he was about to win MVP and the Chip Kelly offense looked unstoppable. Hell, even Demarco Murray looked solid during that preseason.
My point here is that it’s completely asinine to think Foles will do terribly in Wentz’s absence just because he looked bad in the preseason. I mean, did you watch what he did last season? He won the Super Bowl MVP, enough said.
Not to mention that Foles is a notoriously streaky quarterback. Even last season, he played like hot garbage against the Raiders and Cowboys and then turned it on in the playoffs. So, it’s not far fetched to think that this is just another one of Foles’ cold streaks. Plus, he only had two starting skill position players (Zach Ertz and Mike Wallace) out there during the preseason. Believe me, once Foles has the entire offensive arsenal at his disposal he will play much better. Foles has never been an elite quarterback who elevates the players around him. If anything, Foles has always benefited from great skill players elevating his own play.
Wentz is the franchise, and I hope we’ll be watching him for the next decade and a half. To ensure that happens, sometimes you just have to play the waiting game when it comes to an injury of this nature. I have confidence that Foles will step in and do just fine. I’m not expecting a repeat of the NFC Championship or the Super Bowl, but I really don’t think he’s going to drag this team down like so many fans out there seem to believe.
Who knows, maybe Wentz will start week 1 and this debate will be all for not. Coach Pederson didn’t rule out that possibility in his press conference today. If you haven’t seen it yet, I highly recommend watching it. He really lashes out at the media, to be honest I don’t think I’ve ever seen him that aggravated at a presser before.
Essentially, he tells the reporters that he’s done talking about the QBs because they’ve put words in his mouth. You can’t blame him for being mad about the Foles news leaking, he clearly wanted to use that as a competitive advantage over Atlanta. He even admits that during this press conference. When asked that specific question, whether or not he was trying to use this as a competitive advantage, he said this:
“A little bit, yeah, a little bit,” Pederson said. “Yeah. I’m trying to win a football game, you know? I don’t want to put my game plan out there for everybody to see it and read it and teams can scheme. It just doesn’t make a lot of sense, you know?”
I’m still holding out hope that Wentz starts, but no one will really know until Thursday night. We’ll see what happens when the official inactive list comes out 90 minutes before kickoff, but all signs are pointing towards Nick Foles starting the season opener.