Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Eagles’ Foles fighting the urge to start
If it is for the weekend, if it is for the year, if it is for the rest of his career that he will be a backup quarterback, Nick Foles will know one thing.
When he had his chance, he made it work.
“I was blessed to have the opportunity to come back here and play, and to play with great people,” Foles was saying Thursday, after practice at the NovaCare Complex. “So no matter what happens, I have no regrets.
“No matter what happens in the rest of my football career, or whatever, when it comes to football, I have no regrets.”
When the Eagles face the Indianapolis Colts Sunday at 1 o’clock, Carson Wentz will be the starting quarterback for the first time since Week 14 of last season. To ready for that, Foles has spent the week running the Birds’ scout team and preparing to play only in an emergency.
For a player who helped the Eagles survive the NFC tournament, win the Super Bowl, become Super Bowl MVP, write a hot-selling book and help win the season opener, the depth-chart demotion had a chance to be deflating. Though Foles knew the plan all along was for Wentz to start whenever doctors declared his surgically repaired knee fit for NFL play, it did come with at least a tinge of reflection.
That was a million-fan parade he essentially grandmarshaled. But while all parades end, Foles knows it’s natural that he would still, at some point, want to be a featured quarterback.
“Yeah, absolutely,” he said. “And I know that. It’s something that I am aware of. So the big thing is, I like to go back and think about my life and the journey that I have been on, the people who have been here, the ups and downs.
“I had that opportunity when we wrote the book, because I had to reflect on every single moment. And it is humbling even to be at this point. So whenever those prideful things seep in, and they do seep in, I’m not going to say there is never that thought that comes to mind. It does. I’m human. But I have to knock it down. I have to remember where I was, why I play the game, what I have to focus on day to day. And that helps me in the moment like this, where a lot of people say, ‘Why don’t you demand this?’ Well, that’s just not who I am. That’s who I don’t want to be. Because at the end of the day, I want my daughter, once she gets older, to be proud of her daddy. So I focus on that with every decision I make.”
Foles made the decision two offseasons ago to return to Philadelphia, where he’d started his career and where he once was the starting quarterback. He knew that the Eagles had made a massive investment of draft choices in Wentz, and were expecting him to be their franchise quarterback for a decade-plus. But he took an $11 million, two-year offer to be ready and to not create a stir.
He was ready in the last postseason.
He is not going to create a stir after his 1-1 start.
“I’m adjusting to a different role,” he said. “But at the same time, it’s about the Eagles and about this team.
“The big thing is you don’t want your mind to wander. You have to remember what’s important to this team. And that’s coming in every single day and working and working to support Carson. We have a great quarterback room here, the same one as last year. So I will just go in there, do the scout team work, help our defense that way, and focus on that. Day-to-day, it’s just different.
“And I’d say getting used to that again is the biggest task right now.”