In spite of finishing with the third highest passer rating in NFL history, Nick Foles has faced scrutiny of whether or not he is the Eagles franchise quarterback. Head coach Chip Kelly offered his endorsement, Monday. (Image courtesy of Philly.com)
The term franchise quarterback has been tossed around for years and this season the question has been whether or not it should be applied to Nick Foles.
Foles, 24, put together a season that saw him tie an NFL record for seven touchdowns thrown in a single game, finish the year with 29 touchdowns and two interceptions (including his post-season production) and complete 64 percent of his passes while finishing as the most efficient passer in the league with a rating of 119.2
Yet there have been doubters almost weekly as to whether or not he should be the quarterback who shepards this franchise through the Chip Kelly era.
The head coach offered a rather ringing endorsement Monday, two days after Foles threw for 195 yards and two touchdowns in his first playoff game, leaving the field for the final time this season with the lead.
"Yeah," Kelly responded when asked if he's planning on having Foles as his starting quarterback moving forward.
"If the Eagles are a franchise," Kelly answered pointedly. "Then Nick is my quarterback."
Foles' passer rating is the third highest in the history of the league and he seemed to flourish under Kelly's watch and in a scheme that places heavy emphasis on protecting the football and making sound decisions.
"I think he’s a great decision-maker," Kelly praised. "I think he’s extremely accurate where he puts the ball. I think he’s very young, and I think people still sometimes forget about that. He didn’t become our starter until after Mike [Vick] went down in the Giants game. But in the short body of work he did, I think he did an outstanding job.
“Our evaluations are based on demonstrated abilities, and he demonstrated during the time that he was in there that he deserved to be the starting quarterback.”
Given where the Eagles could have been after this season, had Foles not shown himself as an ideal fit for Kelly's offense, they are in a great position to not have to fish in the draft for a possible franchise quarterback who may or may not pan out but who's success or failure would have direct correlation to the franchise's short and long-term future.
In addition to Foles, Matt Barkley is under contract and while Foles is clearly cemented as the quarterback, the USC product admitted Monday that he isn't all that comfortable settling into a backup role for another year.
"I think you always want to be in a spot where you can fight for a starting job," Barkley said. "I don't think you ever want to be a backup but who knows what this next year will bring and my goal is to compete and strive to be the starting quarterback."
Kelly intimated that as was the case prior to this season, he hopes for an atmosphere that fosters competition, even with Foles entrenched as the starting quarterback.
"One of the things we do here is we compete and we have a bunch of guys that compete. Obviously you’ve gotta have one guy. Right now Nick’s that one guy. But I don’t think Nick’s ever been afraid of competition. He showed that to me the first time we had that. So we’re always gonna continue to upgrade at every position. And I think all of our players know that. And I think the guys that are true competitors really embrace that.”
Now, perhaps once and for all the questions about Foles' future and whether he's a fit for Kelly's offense now and in the future can finally be put to rest.
Matt Lombardo is the Editor-In-Chief of Eagledelphia and also an on-air personality on 97.5 FM The Fanatic in Philadelphia. Join the conversation and follow Matt on Twitter.
