Notes on Nick: Evaluating Foles on the bye

Bye-weeks really suck. It’s nice to talk about how the Eagles have a week to try to regroup and recover from injuries, and how having two weeks to prepare for a crucial NFC showdown in Arizona may ultimately help determine their seeding in the playoffs, but when the Eagles aren’t playing on Sunday, it isn’t fun. It also isn’t fun when you are in charge of running a Philadelphia sports site and the Flyers are off to a brutal start, the Phillies have seemingly lost any rooting interest from the city and we’re closing in on the start of what will undoubtedly be the most unwatchable season in Sixers’ history.

So, every weekend one of our biggest rated articles is my “Notes on Nick” column, that combines my game notes and a few post-game thoughts on Nick Foles‘ performance in the Eagles’ most recent game. So this weekend, I’ll evaluate what I’ve seen from Foles in the first six games, where he did help lead the Eagles to a 5-1 record.

Through six games, Foles has thrown 10 touchdowns to seven interceptions and three fumbles. After only throwing two interceptions the entire season last year, Foles leads the NFL in turnovers through the first six weeks.

That said, while Foles has made some poor decisions, stats don’t take into account that LeSean McCoy struggled to make much of any impact the first five games and that Evan Mathis and Jason Kelce have both missed a majority of the season with injuries.

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Foles has improved on his alarming tendency to just drop straight back and get intentional grounding penalties, but he’s still dropping back and ultimately taking sacks too much, and when he does get out of the pocket, he’s making poor decisions in terms of trying to force balls. Are there times where Foles escapes out of trouble, rolls right and can find someone? Yeah, but they are few and far between. For the most part, he should just fall over like Peyton Manning and just take a sack and live to see another play without taking a huge hit, losing yards, and risking a fumble. If he does get out of the pocket and nothing is open, there isn’t anything wrong with throwing the ball away.

Foles worst game, and by the offense as a whole’s worst game, came in San Francsico, game where the Eagles lost 26-21, without their offense scoring a point. But, the Eagles escaped (largely due to a missed call by the refs) with a win from Indy, despite Foles having a down game. While he did make a few crucial throws to get the Eagles to tie the game and into position for Cody Parkey to kick the game winner, Kelly had to draw up a few genius plays involving Darren Sproles and LeSean McCoy in the third quarter to get the Eagles to even keep pace with the Colts.

On the contrary, Foles’ best game was probably the Redskins game. He passed for 325 yards and three touchdowns while helping the Eagles to win a divisional shootout. It was also his only game of the season where he didn’t throw an interception. Last Sunday, #BlackSunday to be exact, felt like it was going to be his best game early, but two bad interceptions kind of killed that. Some people thought I made too much about those picks, but when you are leading the NFL in both picks and turnovers, I’m not sure “making too big of a deal” is a real thing.

I think as Nick Foles gets back a healthy offensive line and Shady has a big second half (which I do expect), he’s going to have a much better second half . But with seven picks already, it’s realistic to think he may have over 15 interceptions and that his stat line isn’t going to scream franchise quarterback at the end of the year. Barring a massive team and individual regression, the Eagles should and will stick with Foles moving forward. Do I think he’s ever going to be a top five quarterback? No, but in Chip Kelly’s offense he might not have to be. Also, I’m not prepared to give up two or three drafts to move up to go get Marcus Mariota. So what better option will the Eagles have than Foles?