Nick Foles Putting My Mind at Ease

This season may potentially be the year in which the Eagles’ quarterback position is figured out and etched in stone for the first time in over 10 years. Mike Vick is the starter, and rookie Nick Foles will be the back-up likely with veteran Mike Kafka being kept as the third string quarterback. Why does the back-up quarterback position matter enough to write about? Did you catch the name of our starter…Mike Vick tends to get injured a lot, it happened in every season of his career except 2006 ironically the last season he played for the Atlanta Falcons, and the first season he went on hiatus from the NFL. After his 3 season break spanning until 2009 his luck has not managed to get any better, he played in 12 games after being suspended for 4 in 2009 but as a back-up not a starter, in 2010 he managed to take over as the starter after Kevin Kolb got injured but managed just 12 games once again, Kevin Kolb managed to play in 7 games that season due in part to Vick’s injuries. In 2011 even after Kevin Kolb was traded Vick started just 13 games. Prompting the Eagles to draft Nick Foles in the 3rd round to compete with Mike Kafka the guy who got to see action for the first time in Vick’s absence last season, and Trent Edwards a former starter for Buffalo. Kafka played in 4 games last season managing to complete 11 of 16 passes for 107 yards and just 2 interceptions. We all know that this has been a problem for the Eagles for years, that’s why Vince Young, Jeff Garcia, Trent Edwards, Mike Vick, Kevin Kolb, A.J. Feeley, Koy Detmer, Mike Kafka, Nick Foles, and many others have seen starting time for the team. The Eagles are potentially the best team in the league to never have a quarterback start 16 games.

However this season seems more promising and a big part of that is rookie Nick Foles the back-up quarterback for the Eagles. Due to injuries to Mike Vick, and then Mike Kafka as well the team allowed the rookie to start the next 3 games which actually worked out quite well for the rookie, and the team. You see the Eagles almost needed Foles to step up in a big way, and he did. Coming out as one of the top 3 passers after just action in 3 games. He has been so impressive people are saying he will not only be the top back-up but sometime either this season, or maybe next season Foles can push Mike Vick to play hard, and more importantly try and stay healthy. He has seen how fast things change as the starting quarterback in Philly, and he could fall victim to it soon if he isn’t careful. At 6′6 243 I’m thinking Nick Foles presents a much more durable quarterbackf for the team to rely on starting all 16 games, while Vick may be the most exciting quarterback in the league to watch, it’s not very exciting when he is on the bench and he knows that as well as his coaches do. So for once injuries played into the favor of the Eagles allowing them to start Foles and see what he could do with the starters for a couple games and boy did he deliver. He has people calling him one of the most impressive rookies on the field, offense or defense, and has even been called a franchise quarterback already. His former coaches have come out and said the same. Maybe the Eagles struck it rich for once. But maybe they should take a lesson from the past and not allow Vick to leave so soon just because of injury, allow Foles to learn the offense and grow with the team before letting him take over. With 5 more seasons on Vick’s contract the Eagles need to take advantage of this time and develop a great AND durable quarterback, not settle for someone they think can start for the majority of the games and leave them hanging for a couple games every season.