BIRDS BELIEVE IN FOLES
Pederson still thinks Eagles can rally around Foles after QB helped seal win against Rams
Leave it to Malcolm Jenkins to put a happy face on how fortunate the Eagles are to own an 11-2 record at this stage of the season despite the injury to franchise quarterback Carson Wentz.
Most Valuable Player candidate Wentz still was getting used to the air cast on his torn left ACL Sunday when Jenkins urged players wearing their new NFC East championship hats to forget about feeling sorry for themselves — in a very adult way.
Jenkins explained Wednesday why he felt it necessary to give the guys a cold slap in the face after their win over the Los Angeles Rams. One week from his 30th birthday, he realizes how difficult it is to get to this point, regardless of the quarterback.
“If we would have started this year and somebody had said to you, ‘alright, you’ve got one game against the Giants to clinch a first-round bye,’ you don’t care who you’ve got on the field,” at quarterback, Jenkins said. “If that’s the deal you’ll take those odds. And then the next week, you’ve got an opportunity to do even more. So, at this point we’ve set ourselves up so great throughout this season that everything we want is in front of it. So, we
won’t let a little bit of adversity, somebody going down or anything like that stop us from feeling good about ourselves because we’re right there. And whatever we’ve got to do to figure it out, we’ll do it.”
Just so you know, if the ‘whatever they’ve got to do to figure it out’ includes adding a veteran quarterback like Colin Kaepernick, Jenkins is on board. And Kaepernick’s advisors, by the way, have intimated Kap — who kick-started the national anthem protests — has not been included in the work of Jenkins and the NFL Players Coalition working to affect social change.
“If they were to make that decision, it would be in the spirit of making our team better,” Jenkins said referencing the front office. “And I’m all for it. I think he’s been deserving of a job for a long time. I think he can help a team. Whether that’s this team, that’s not my decision to make.”
Right now, the Eagles are rolling with Nick Foles at quarterback and Nate Sudfeld
as the backup. Though head coach Doug Pederson said on his way out of his Wednesday news conference the Eagles weren’t working on bringing a quarterback to the practice squad, it’s a front office decision. Signing a vet with playoff experience to a roster slot would make more sense. Kaepernick and Robert Griffin III, among others, could fill such a role.
But back to the present, and reality. Pederson again talked Foles up like he was the same fellow who threw 27 touchdown passes and just two interceptions in taking over for Michael Vick and leading the Eagles to a 10-6 record in 2013.
Pederson wasn’t with the Eagles that year, having been canned along with Andy Reid. Yet he still thinks Foles is the guy this team can rally around, based on limited play in the win over the Rams.
“A great example was that game the other day,” Pederson said. “(Foles) comes in and nobody blinks, nobody bats an eye. There was no hesitation and that was just the confidence the guys have in Nick.”
Pederson later explained that the nine-yard throw to Nelson Agholor for a huge
clock-killing first down was more amazing because Wentz was intercepted trying to make the same pass to Agholor in the first quarter.
“Nelson learned from that,” Pederson said. “Nick learned from it. That’s the type of player that Nick is. And that’s the confidence that I have, to be able to call that on third-andeight. It helped us win the game.”
Giants interim head coach Steve Spagnuolo, who opposes the Eagles Sunday at MetLife Stadium, spoke of Wentz on a conference call Wednesday. Spagnuolo called the third-down throw “exceptional.
“We’re going to plan to defend the scheme,” Spagnuolo said. “I just think they’re a well-oiled machine right now. What I witnessed when Nick Foles went in last week is they didn’t miss a beat. He obviously prepares really well as a backup.”
Zach Ertz leads the Eagles with 57 receptions. He sat out the Rams game with a concussion but returned to practice Wednesday and has been cleared to play this weekend. Ertz’s first career scoring pass was one of an NFL record-tying seven that Foles threw in a blowout of the Raiders in 2013.
“It’s definitely not the easiest thing, switching quarterbacks,” Ertz said. “But I think there’s a lot of familiarity with Nick. The coaches understand what Nick does well. Doug’s been with him for a long time. The whole season he’s been playing well, even on the scout team, per se. With Nick, he throws such an easy ball to catch that there’s not a real adjustment period.”
No one on the squad knows how tough it is to get to a Super Bowl, which Jenkins did in his 2009 rookie season with the New Orleans Saints. Jenkins doesn’t want to keep reminding his teammates about it.
“Obviously Nick is no Carson and they have different skills sets but I don’t think anybody is looking at this next game or the game after that and saying ‘oh, I’ve got to play harder or do more to compensate for Nick,’” Jenkins said. “We know we can plug Nick in, he’s going to be an efficient quarterback, he’s going to make the decisions and he’s going to run our offense. And everybody else, just do their jobs.”