50. Nick Foles, QB, Philadelphia
There seem to be two schools of thought on Foles. The first is that he was a prospect of moderate renown heading into the pros who managed to hit the jackpot, having learned under Andy Reid and now Chip Kelly. He’s parlayed this into a role in which he basically can’t fail, needing only to count and execute simple reads before making safe throws to open receivers, who do most of the work for Foles after the catch. The second school is actually located inside of a Wawa in South Philly. It holds that Foles’s numbers are so incredible that you cannot possibly doubt for a single second that he’s one of the premier young quarterbacks in football and, with two years to go on a four-year, $2.8 million contract, one of the best trade chips in the game. (They’re also very skeptical when I suggest Foles might not really be the best quarterback in football like his numbers indicate. “But you like stats!” they say, as if all stats are created equal and are of the exact same validity.)
Here’s what I know: Foles isn’t going to throw interceptions on 0.6 percent of his passes again. He’s going to miss DeSean Jackson, because for whatever benefit Jeremy Maclin and Zach Ertz offer, they’re not the same sort of receiver Jackson was, and there’s not an obvious deep threat on the roster. For whatever
revisionist history is going around about how the Eagles knew Foles was special, Kelly chose Michael Vick to start ahead of Foles in training camp last season, and it didn’t seem to be a particularly difficult decision for him to make. Foles is a dab hand who does a good job of avoiding dangerous throws, and he’s good enough for the Eagles to win, but the system is the star here, not the quarterback. Foles could have a Pro Bowl–caliber season or he could be buried deep behind Mark Sanchez — or another quarterback who isn’t even on the roster — this time next year.