Should The Eagles Start Michael Vick or Nick Foles?

We have the setting for a great quarterback controversy after Nick Foles led the Birds to a 36-21 win over the Giants, but Eagles head coach Chip Kelly has already made it clear that Michael Vick is the starter, but no one can argue that Foles did anything but a great job yesterday.

He was on the money with his decisions and his throws.   Foles seems to play with an air of confidence that’s beyond his years and it shows he can handle the position and its requirements.

“I said, really, from the day we walked in here, you’ve got to have two quarterbacks,” Kelly said. “I felt confident in Nick with Mike not being 100 percent.”

Foles was ready to play.  Kelly talked about Foles treating the practices like he was starter.  The head coach was definitely telling the truth. Foles stepped into the game and didn’t miss a beat from the first snap he took.

“You prepare during the week, you put in all the work you can, you know the gameplan, you know what you want to do, you know where you want to attack them, and you do it,” Foles said.

“So you go in with less clutter in your brain, you’re going to play better. It’s really probably common sense. I do everything I can during the week to prepare and then if something like this does happen, I know I’m ready. I’ve done everything I can. Just go out there and let natural ability take over.”

I will also give credit to Kelly for making some adjustments with his passing game in the red zone.  The new designs pass route designs worked well when Foles came into the game.  His two touchdown passes were both new play designs which we hadn’t seen yet.He put in that throw back pass to the tight end and Foles threw a great pass and Brent Celek made a great catch.

The double move by wide receiver DeSean Jackson was also a nice play design and it was perfect for Jackson, who will get open because of his speed and quickness rather than his size. The Foles touch pass was a thing of beauty.

The corner route to Zach Ertz, when Vick was in the game, was a nice play call with him facing man-to-man coverage from one of the outside linebackers.

Let me get back to which quarterback should start.

If the Eagles were to start Foles, it may be a shot in the arm to their passing game, which they need.  Foles gets rid of the ball with the quickness.  He’s not going to hold the ball very and wait for the deep throw to come open.  It’s one, two, three and the ball is out of his hands.  He also throws a very catchable ball and he has a great feel for the touch pass.  Both of the touchdown passes were different styles of touch passes.

Foles ability to the get the ball out of his hands may make the Eagles short to intermediate passing game to the tight ends more effective.

The second-year quarterback could provide some serious help to the team’s passing game, but at the same time he will probably struggle in much the same way that Vick has, when the wide receivers are unable to get open and the offensive line is getting outplayed.

Making Foles the starter could mean a setback for LeSean McCoy and the team’s running game.  Defenses aren’t going to bother trying to stop Foles when he’s handing the ball off to McCoy on the read option.  Did you see the time he held onto the ball yesterday?  It didn’t look good.

The opposing team’s defensive mindset is going to be, make sure to tackle McCoy and dare Foles to run with the ball.  The threat of a ball carrier like  Vick opens up opportunities for McCoy.

From the start of yesterday’s game, you could see that the Giants came into the game with the intention of stopping McCoy and daring Vick to beat them with his legs and his arm.  Vick hurt them running the ball in the first half.  Chip Kelly took advantage of the situation, by having Vick run some sweeps behind two pulling offensive linemen.  At halftime of the game, Vick had already picked up 79 yards on 7 rushing attempts.

Unfortunately all that running caused Vick to end up watching the second half from the sideline because of an injured hamstring.

Starting Foles could also reduce the Eagles effectiveness in throwing the ball downfield to Jackson.  Throwing the deep ball is one of Vick’s strengths,  Foles isn’t a good deep ball thrower because he puts too much air under the throw.

So what do you think Kelly should do?  You know that he’s already said that he’s going to back to Vick when he gets healthy.  Vick helps the Eagles running game, but Foles has a great feel for the passing game and he gets the ball out of his hands and into the hands of the team’s receivers.  At the same time, starting him will remove a tremendous running threat from the team’s ground game.

I don’t think Vick or Foles is the Eagles quarterback of the future, but who knows what will happen in the future.  Foles is 24 and in only his second-year in the league, while Vick is 33 years old and  getting near the end of his career.