Nick Foles Could Be Chiefs Next QB
Before you read the title and dedicate your karaoke rendition of Dr. Demento’s They’re Coming To Take Me Away to yours truly, hear this: Nick Foles was garbage last week. That performance on Sunday looks bad statistically, and it was worse to watch. Foles was constantly under pressure and looked lost out there. I don’t know if all his WRs were covered or if Andy Reid decided to give Albert Wilson the Chad Hall treatment, but whatever happened it was bad. If I had to guess what the game-plan was, I would say it was: don’t throw the ball where anyone can catch it, defense or offense. Foles kinda failed at that too, nearly throwing an interception and somehow managing to hit Albert Wilson in the end-zone. How could any of that be good news? Well, it can’t really, but with a little bit of delusional optimism and a whole lot of squinting, I seek to find the silver lining.
It’s become very evident that last week‘s calls for Foles to replace Smith were incredibly premature, if not laughable. I’m here to tell you that the same is true of calls to cut Foles now, or even statements like: Foles will never amount to anything. I’m not trying to defend what Foles did on the field, but remember, he’s only been with the Chiefs for a few months. He didn’t have all of training camp to learn and reps are limited in the regular season. Alex Smith has become really solid for the Chiefs, but he didn’t get that way over-night. In Smith’s first game for the Chiefs (interestingly enough also against the Jaguars), he threw for 173 yards, 2TDs and had a completion percentage of 61.8%. Nick Foles, on Sunday, threw for 187 yards, 1TD, and competed 60.6% of his passes.
While Smith’s stats are slightly better, he was absolutely in a better position to succeed. He’d been with the Chiefs all off-season, the Chiefs Oline was pretty solid and Jamaal Charles was healthy and incredibly productive. Foles on the other hand, had a partial off-season, a banged up Oline, a 3rd string running back and his two best receiving targets missing for big chunks of the game. He could have done a ton better, but he also could have done a lot worse. There’s enough similarity between their stat lines to feel some optimism about Foles potential to develop. There’s reason to be happy with his potential. There’s also a compelling reason to be happy about his failure: salary.
The highest paid backup in the NFL, if you don’t count guys who were supposed to be starters at the beginning of the year, but couldn’t hack it, is Chase Daniel at an average of 7m per year. The next highest is Nick Foles at an average of 6.25m per year. Since Chiefs only signed him for two years, and he’s making 1.75m this year, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that Foles will be very expensive next year. About 10.4M, to be precise. Foles‘ contract contains no guaranteed money at all, so if Chiefs don’t want to pay him, they don’t have to and cap space is already looking tight. If Foles had looked great on Sunday, Chiefs probably would have had to either trade him next season, or decide to move on from Alex Smith, a very risky move since Foles has had an up and down career.
The fact that Foles didn’t look remotely appealing on Sunday should give Dorsey all the leverage he needs to keep Foles and develop him for a few years at a more reasonable rate. By that time, Chiefs should know enough to either crown him the starter or sell him to the highest bidder. (Am I the only one who feels really weird about the concept of trading human beings?)
Basically, we just don’t have enough information to say for sure what Foles will be. Andy Reid has had decent success reviving the careers of some washed up QBs. It’s certainly possible he could do the same with Foles. Sunday has put the QB controversy to rest, but it shouldn’t sully our view of Foles too much. He’s still got a lot of stuff to fix and he will get better. In the meantime, I’m going to resist the urge to crush him for one bad game. Especially when 3 of his first four years in the league were spent with terrible coaches.
If Chiefs had to decide whether Foles was the Quarterback of the future next year, there’s almost no chance he’d be staying with Big Red. As is, Chiefs should be able to get an extra year or two to evaluate Foles which actually gives him a better chance of someday starting for the Chiefs.
Random Note
Dorsey continues to churn the practice squad. The addition of QB Joel Stave is a bit interesting since Stave has never been much good, but perhaps Chiefs are looking for a long term PS QB so they don’t have to keep three QBs on the 53-man roster. That would make sense with all the depth Chiefs have these days.
And that’s my Sizzling Take!
