Philadelphia Eagles may have a quarterback problem heading into Week 1
By Dan Parzych
All of a sudden, there’s a lot of uncertainty surrounding the Philadelphia Eagles at quarterback heading into Week 1 against the Atlanta Falcons.
Entering Week 3 of the preseason against the Cleveland, Browns, the Philadelphia Eagles were hoping to see some improvement by Nick Foles after a rough outing the previous game against the New England Patriots.
Then again, Foles deserved some benefit of the doubt for that game against the Patriots since he had been dealing with upper body soreness the week before and was pulled against New England as a result of a shoulder strain.
With all of this taken into consideration, why on earth would Doug Pederson want to play Foles against the Browns? Well, since the status of Carson Wentz for Week 1 is still up in the air as he continues to recover from a torn ACL, Pedrson wanted some reassurance that Philadelphia could rely on Foles if needed for that first game against the Atlanta Falcons.
So how exactly did everything turn out for Foles against the Browns? Unfortunately, the term horrendous doesn’t even seem like a fitting term to describe the kind of performance Foles put together when facing Cleveland.
As if the three turnovers by Foles wasn’t already frustrating enough to see from one half of action, the quarterback’s performance also consisted of a safety as a result from tripping over his own feet in the end zone.
In other words, any hope of reassurance that Foles could be relied on if needed in less than two weeks was quickly thrown out the window before halftime during Thursday’s game. And while the argument can be made that Pederson has plenty of time to make sure the offense will be in the best shape possible at quarterback, there are no guarantees.
Heading into the offseason, the Eagles were viewed as a team with arguably the best quarterback situation in the NFL since the team was in great shape with Wentz, but also had a reliable backup in Foles coming off winning a Super Bowl MVP. Not to mention, with Nate Sudfeld showing progress over the first two preseason games, Philadelphia seemed to be in even better shape with a potential backup quarterback of the future once Foles was no longer around.
Instead, the Eagles head into their final game of preseason after an embarrassing 5-0 loss to the Browns with more questions than answers at the quarterback position.
Will Wentz be healthy enough to play Week 1? Can Foles be counted on if needed?
As bad as it sounds, it’s impossible for Philadelphia to answer these questions at this very moment, which never even seemed like a possibility a few months ago. Never in a million years did anyone think the Eagles of all teams would appear to have a quarterback problem heading into Week 1, but here they are with one more game in preseason before the real action gets underway.