A Tale of Nine Starts: Foles/McNabb

by Posted on

The debate in Philadelphia rages on.  Journalists write about it.  It dominates the airwaves of sports-talk radio.  Walk into any pub and you’ll hear people discussing it.  Is Nick Foles the quarterback of the future for the Philadelphia Eagles?  Can his skills and potential bear the weight and responsibility our of collective Super Bowl dreams?

NFL: Preseason-New York Jets at Philadelphia EaglesMaybe Bill Polian knows, but he’s a football General Manager legend.  Other than that, how can anyone really know for certain after seeing Foles start nine games?  The kid hasn’t played an entire season.  If Foles was a first round draft choice, he’d be given a full year and then be evaluated.

Foles has started nine games.   How do those first nine starts compare to the first nine starts of Donovan McNabb, arguably the greatest quarterback in Philadelphia Eagles history and self-appointed Hall of Fame candidate?  Let’s take a look, shall we?

Microsoft Word - A Tale of Nine Starts.docx

For comparison purposes, there is no comparison.  Foles’ first nine starts are in another stratosphere.  He beats McNabb in every category.  If we added in rushing, McNabb would look a bit more comparable, but that’s not what we are comparing.  This is to assess Nick Foles ability and potential to develop into an above-average NFL quarterback.

Here are the respective Splits, both put a clunker or two up in their first nine starts:

DONOVAN:

DONOVANSPLITSFOLES:

FolesSplitsSure, Foles doesn’t pay the eye-test.  He’s big and looks slower than his actual speed.  His passes don’t seem to have any zip.  However, he has decent pocket awareness.  He takes care of the ball and currently has an interception percentage that would compare with the league leaders.  In the red zone this year, Foles is 12-15 with 7 TDs 0 INTs.

We’ve all seen the quarterback McNabb developed into.  Looking at these numbers, is there reason to believe that Foles can develop and improve into an above-average quarterback?  If you believe that he can, do you still move on to another quarterback because he doesn’t seem right for Chip Kelly’s ideal offensive system? How long is Chip Kelly here?

There’s the old saying that a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.  In this case, maybe a Foles on the team is worth two in the draft.  I’m just saying.  This isn’t a pro Foles article or an anti Vick piece.  This is simply a comparison to put the first nine starts of Foles in some sort of perspective.