Philadelphia Eagles should have rested Nick Foles in Week 2 of preseason

After resting in Week 1 of the preseason, it’s safe to say the Philadelphia Eagles should have rested Nick Foles against the New England Patriots as well.

Even though the meaning behind Thursday’s meeting between the Philadelphia Eagles and New England Patriots wasn’t nearly as big as the Super Bowl in February, there was still plenty of excitement surrounding Nick Foles playing in the preseason for the first time.

Last week against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Doug Pederson made the easy choice to rest the Super Bowl MVP as a safety precaution after Foles was dealing with upper body soreness throughout the week, and was well aware of what his beloved quarterback was capable of.

Apparently, Pederson should have strongly considered resting Foles for a second week in a row when seeing how much he struggled against the Patriots, along with dealing with a shoulder strain.

After completing just 3 of 9 passes for 44 yards while seeing one of his fumbles following a sack returned 54 yards for a touchdown, this was clearly not the best performance by Foles. And while there was no way to determine that he would look this awful heading into the game, it’s easy to make the case that Philadelphia should have given more thought into resting Foles instead of playing him.

By the time the regular season rolls around, Foles will hopefully be in more sync with his receivers if he ends up being needed come September since the status of Carson Wentz is still up in the air at this point in preseason, although he’s making the right progress.

Preseason is one of those situations that football fans love just as much as they hate since it’s amazing to see games in action, but also concerning when looking at the risk of injuries to key players.

When considering Foles was feeling sore last week along with the shoulder injury from the first half against New England, Philadelphia should have just taken the safe approach by holding off on him playing.

Plus, as bad as it sounds to say, imagine the situation for the Eagles if both Wentz and Foles are unable to go come Week 1, meaning the team would be forced to go with Nate Sudfeld for that first game against the Atlanta Falcons.

In other words, the decision to play Foles should be one that Pederson looks back on, and wishes he took a different approach instead of going with the unnecessary risk, even if he did want to give him some action to brush off any rust.