Philadelphia Eagles: Foles landing SI cover for Super Bowl LII adds to amazing journey

With the Philadelphia Eagles heading to Minnesota to take on the New England Patriots for Super Bowl LII, Nick Foles will appear on this week’s cover of Sports Illustrated.

Once Carson Wentz down with a torn ACL back in Week 14 against the Los Angeles Rams, many wrote off the Philadelphia Eagles since the offense would be forced to move forward with Nick Foles at quarterback. And even though there were some concerns towards the end of the regular season along with a performance against the Atlanta Falcons in the Divisional Round that seemed average at best, Foles all of a sudden finds himself in position in which the Eagles are one win away from bringing the team their first Super Bowl title in franchise history.

Between finishing the game against the Rams on a strong enough note to help his team secure the hard fought win on the road, and his four-touchdown performance in Week 15 during his first start of the year against the New York Giants, the potential certainly seemed to be there early on for Foles when it came to being able to lead this team to the Super Bowl. But when seeing how Foles looked to close out the season with poor performances against the Oakland Raiders and Dallas Cowboys, it was easy to understand why some Philadelphia fans were concerned over Foles heading into January.

Even against Atlanta, Foles deserved plenty of credit for doing just enough to get by while doing a great job of not recording a single turnover, but everybody knew he would need to elevate his game to a whole new level if Philadelphia was going to have any chance of taking down Minnesota.

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Luckily, Foles accepted that challenge by displaying what may have been the most impressive performance of his career when looking at how meaningful this game was against the Vikings by completing 26 of 33 passes for 352 yards to go along with three touchdowns to help the Eagles make a huge statement in their 38-7 win. To top off the excitement of earning a trip to Minnesota for the Super Bowl, Foles and his teammates have every reason in the world to be thrilled as well over seeing the Philadelphia quarterback land on the cover of Sports Illustrated in honor of the team being NFC Champions.

Without question, the football journey by Foles has truly been amazing when looking at everything he’s experienced over the years between the trade two years ago from the Eagles that sent him to the St. Louis Rams along with last offseason in which the Kansas City Chiefs declined to pickup his option. Not to mention, let’s not forget that back in March, there were plenty of Eagles fans who laughed over the fact that Doug Pederson brought him on board as a backup to Wentz, only to be beyond thankful for the head coach making that decision when he did.

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Pederson never would have brought Foles on board in the first place if he didn’t think he was the right man for the job if needed, and seeing the head coach continue to defend his quarterback in the weeks leading up to the playoffs shows how fortunate Philadelphia fans should feel. If it was’t for Foles, there’s no way the Eagles would be in this current position to be on the verge of winning the Super Bowl, and it’s great to see the quarterback finally earn the respect he deserves, including his appearance on the cover of Sports Illustrated.