Nick Foles Has Shown There’s No Wilting Under Pressure
Nick Foles has been there before. There, being center stage. Even though the Chicago Bears quarterback has been a backup quarterback for most of his NFL life, he has shined under the brightest lights. Foles possesses a certain level of calmness when he’s on the football field. He’s cool under pressure, and that just might be what the Bears need to get to the next level.
Nick Foles has had a unique NFL career
Nick Foles played his college football at Arizona. He was a third-round pick of the Philadelphia Eagles in the 2012 NFL draft. The Eagles selected the 6-foot-6, 243-pound quarterback with the 88th overall pick.
Foles started six games as a rookie with the Eagles after Michael Vick was injured. Foles went 1-5 as a started during that stretch and went down with a broken hand late in the season. During his second season, Foles filled in for an injured Vick and then got the starting nod Week 6. Foles threw for four touchdowns in a victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He started 10 games that year and earned a trip to the Pro Bowl.
Foles was traded to the St. Louis Rams prior to the 2015 season and started 11 games, going 4-7. He then signed a one-year deal with the Kansas City Chiefs for the 2016 season and played just three games. He returned to Philadelphia for two seasons, then played four games with the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2019 before hooking on with the Chicago Bears for the 2020 season.
Foles’ return to Philadelphia
After the Kansas City Chiefs declined to pick up Nick Foles’ second-year option in 2017, he became a free agent. Foles then inked a two-year deal to return to the Eagles and become the backup to Philadelphia’s first-round pick, Carson Wentz. Foles clearly showed he was a great insurance policy.
During Week 14 against his former team, Foles entered the game after Wentz suffered a torn ACL and helped secure a 43-35 win over the Los Angeles Rams. In his first start in 2017, Foles threw four touchdown passes in a win over the New York Giants. In the first round of the playoffs, Foles guided the Eagles to their first postseason win in nine seasons when they defeated the Atlanta Falcons 15-10.
Foles then threw three touchdown passes in the NFC title game as the Eagles cruised past the Minnesota Vikings 38-7. Foles then found himself starting the Super Bowl against the New England Patriots. He went on to throw three touchdown passes and catch another as the Eagles defeated the Patriots 41-33. Foles was named the MVP of the Super Bowl.
Foles is calm, cool, and collected
Heading into the 2020 season, Nick Foles found himself relegated to the backup role once again. After a healthy competition with Mitchell Trubisky for the starting quarterback job for the Chicago Bears, Trubisky won but was on a short leash. Last week, Trubisky was benched as the Bears were trailing the Atlanta Falcons 26-10 entering the fourth quarter. Foles came in and engineered a comeback, throwing three touchdown passes in the final 6:10 in the Bears’ 30-26 win.
“I would say that any calming presence that any player has in those moments definitely helps you out as a coach,” Bears coach Matt Nagy told ChicagoBears.com. “I’ve always known that Nick has had that. I didn’t know it right away, but I’ve seen him in another uniform and I’ve felt it, and I’ve talked to other coaches that have told me about it.”
“Obviously, you see the Super Bowl, and then you talk to him in the offseason and you listen to his experiences that he went through, and little tricks that help him in those types of situations,” Nagy said. “Now, a lot of that is DNA. But he’s also learned how to go about his own way of making it work. I did feel that in that game (last week). I looked out at him out there — matter of fact, it was actually right before the (game-winning) touchdown pass to Anthony Miller. He just was kind of in his own zone, and I could just tell, like, not to mess with him, just let him go, he’s in a good place right now.”
