As camp begins, it’s Wentz’s team, but Foles’ offense
PHILADELPHIA » One day into Eagles training camp, it’s already awkward for Nick Foles and Carson Wentz.
While the Eagles are Wentz’s team, according to management, there’s no question the offense at this point belongs to Foles. Wentz couldn’t run it better Thursday, although in all fairness, he was with the second team. Thankfully, he didn’t reinjure his left knee trying to haul in one of Isaac Seumalu’s wild shotgun snaps.
Super Bowl LII MVP Foles, except for a couple of modest mistakes, still looked the part taking the first-team snaps. There were a couple of run-pass option plays where Foles used such deception to fool the defense you had to hold the applause. It was Philly-Philly sick stuff.
Sure, it’s the first day of basically a meaningless camp for the defending champs. Nonetheless, if you subtract the careless pick-six Foles threw to Rasul Douglas, he did just about all you could do with a unit that had pre-snap issues. He was starter worthy, and then some.
Wentz, in a new lightweight protective brace, showed no evidence of the ACL and LCL tears he blew out last December at the Los Angeles Coliseum.
Wentz functioned well in 11-on-11’s. You really didn’t want to be that misguided national “insider” who wrote that the Eagles were strongly considering putting Wentz on PUP to start camp.
The plan is for Wentz to begin getting snaps with the first-team offense. At least that’s the way he understands it.
Pederson better start working on the spin it’s going to take to explain why he’s taking the ball away from Foles and giving it to Wentz.
“Right now, I’m not concerned with the first, second, third team,” Pederson said after practice. “It’s just how we rotate the offensive lines pretty much. There is probably going to be a day where (Wentz is) in there with the ones, so I’m not going to get caught up in the reps and who is getting what. It’s too early.”
When practice was over, the quarterbacks went to the media tent, separately, of course. Foles spoke first. It sure sounded like the Eagles were his team, at least to the folks who have been through a ton of Birds’ training camps.
The big issue — and the Eagles knew the day was approaching — is that it’s ridiculous considering Foles a backup. The guy looks and sounds like he’s ready to outduel Tom Brady, Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots again. But with Wentz, who was bidding to win the regular season MVP last year, what can you call Foles?
“No one knows my label,” Foles said. “It’s sort of been that way for a long time. And I’ve said it before, I don’t really care. I know that I love my teammates, I love this city, I love playing for these coaches, and whatever they need of me I’m going to give them everything I’ve got. And that’s how I play the game. You don’t need to come out and say, ‘Hey, you’re the starter, you’re the backup, whatever.’ You’re going to get me. That’s it. It doesn’t affect me. If that affects me I’ve probably got some issues I’ve got to deal with.”
Foles is overflowing with confidence. So much so he’s been touted by various and sundry scribes as the second-best quarterback in the NFC East. That got me thinking, and you know how dangerous that can be. If Foles quarterbacked the New York Giants, would they win the NFC East this season? The Washington Redskins? The hated Dallas Cowboys? There’s no slam-dunk answers in any of those settings.
Wentz, on the other hand, sounds better than he’s carrying himself, at least compared to Foles.
Wentz said the next hurdle in his rehab is contact.
“That’s the next step, the next goal,” Wentz said. “We’ll just progress it with really how I feel, how it reacts, what coaches are wanting and trainers and everything. It’s hard to play the whatif game but for now we’ll just stay the course and see how I feel. It feels great. Obviously, it was a limited number of reps today but it felt great just to be back out there, be under center, be with the guys again.”
Make no mistake, Foles was elated to be back at quarterback of the team he led to the world championship. The one chronicled in his book, “Believe It: My Journey of Success, Failure and Overcoming the Odds.” The team he spoke off on the national media circuit, from the Jimmy Kimmel Show, to Good Morning America, to Books a Million at suburban Philadelphia malls.
Playing quarterback obviously is a lot more fun than telling everybody he doesn’t know why Brady didn’t congratulate him after the big game.
You can label Brady. Superstar crybaby sure fits.
You can’t do the same with Foles. Not after what he’s done, and what he might do.
“I’m going to go out there, I’m going to sling the ball, I’m going to have trust in my teammates, I’m going to step in that huddle,” Foles said. “I love playing with those guys. It’s so much fun just stepping in the huddle, seeing their eyes and going out there and playing ball.
And that’s what I’m going to focus on.” It’s getting awkward around here.
In a few months we’ll know if that’s a good thing.
Contact Bob Grotz at bobgrotz@21stcenturymedia.com; follow him on Twitter @bobgrotz.