Eagles Owner Jeffery Lurie Says Expectations Havenโ€™t Changed Even With Nick Foles As Starter

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 arenโ€™t any different with Nick Foles in place as their starter.

โ€œNo, it really hasnโ€™t. You have that initial worry,โ€ Lurie said. โ€œWe lost Jason Peters, it was like, โ€˜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.

โ€œUgh, 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.

โ€œWeโ€™ve planned for having a really good backup quarterback who I think is capable of being a good starter in the league,โ€ Lurie continued. โ€œWe just got to go for it.โ€

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.

โ€œWe purposely invested a lot in the backup quarterback position,โ€ Lurie said. โ€œNick was a Pro Bowl player for us. Heโ€™s a great guy with a lot of talent.โ€

โ€œWeโ€™ve seen Nick be very good. And that year, 27 touchdowns, was no fluke. This is a better football team than that team. Heโ€™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 weโ€™ll play hard and I think weโ€™ll play well. And shoot for the No. 1 seed if we can get it.โ€

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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