Eagles owner Jeffery Lurie tells Ian Rapoport of NFL Media that while they lost QB Carson Wentz for the season due to a torn ACL, expectations for the team aren’t any different with Nick Foles in place as their starter.
“No, it really hasn’t. You have that initial worry,” Lurie said. “We lost Jason Peters, it was like, ‘Oh my god. How we going to protect the quarterback? Ugh, we lost Darren Sproles. How are we going to have any kind of receiving game out of the backfield and blitz protection.
“Ugh, we lost our play-caller on defense, Jordan Hicks. How are we going to manage? Jeez, our special teams were good but we lost our best special teams player, [Chris] Maragos. We just got to have the same attitude, exact same approach.
“We’ve planned for having a really good backup quarterback who I think is capable of being a good starter in the league,” Lurie continued. “We just got to go for it.”
Lurie added that they made a point to invest in the quarterback position this offseason and view Foles as a starting-caliber quarterback in this league.
“We purposely invested a lot in the backup quarterback position,” Lurie said. “Nick was a Pro Bowl player for us. He’s a great guy with a lot of talent.”
“We’ve seen Nick be very good. And that year, 27 touchdowns, was no fluke. This is a better football team than that team. He’s surrounded with a better team now than when he was with us before. So, we have a real resilient group of guys and I know we’ll play hard and I think we’ll play well. And shoot for the No. 1 seed if we can get it.”
Foles, 28, is a former third-round pick of the Eagles back in 2012. Philadelphia traded Foles to the Rams back in 2015 in a deal for QB Sam Bradford and he later signed an extension with the Rams.
Unfortunately, Foles lasted just over a year with the Rams before he was released last summer and later signed by the Chiefs. The Eagles signed Foles to a two-year, $11 million contract that includes $7 million guaranteed this past March. He stands to make a base salary of $1 million this season and another $4 million in 2018.
In 2017, Foles has appeared in four games and completed 71.4 percent of his passes.
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