EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – Every football season answers questions. Every football season raises questions. For the Philadelphia Eagles, there are more questions than answers after going 10-6 for the second consecutive year under head coach Chip Kelly.
Last year’s 10-6 was earned with a 7-1 second-half run, an NFC East title and a first-round playoff berth. This year, the 10-6 record was settled for after the Eagles were sitting at 9-3 and in control of the NFC East race. All the Eagles accomplished Sunday was to end the three-game losing streak that robbed their season of its luster.
The biggest question they face is the biggest question there is for a football team: Do they have a quarterback capable of taking them where they want to go? Normally, if you’re asking that question, the answer is no.
The Eagles are asking that question.
A year ago, they thought Nick Foles might be the guy. After half a season, they have more reasons to doubt Foles than to believe in him. The fractured collarbone that cut his season in half also robbed the Eagles of eight valuable games to see Foles develop.
“It’s very hard to answer that until you accomplish it,” Eagles owner Jeff Lurie said after Sunday’s 34-26 win over the New York Giants. “You can point to people that have accomplished it: Aaron [Rodgers] and Tom [Brady] and Peyton [Manning] and those guys. That’s the elite of the NFL. Until you’ve accomplished that, you can’t say you have it.”
Rodgers, Brady and Manning are not going to be available this offseason. The question is whether Kelly’s approach will backfire on the Eagles. He attempted to start winning games right away with the personnel he inherited. Foles replaced Michael Vick last season, and was replaced by Mark Sanchez this season.
Kelly’s predecessor, Andy Reid, did it the other way. He drafted Donovan McNabb at the top of his first draft and built the team around him. By Year 2, Reid’s Eagles were 11-5 and going to the postseason.
“You’ve always got to make that position the most important and do whatever you can to be the best at that position that you can,” Lurie said. “There’s a scarcity of quarterbacks. Let’s face it. There’s a lot of teams that really struggle at that position. You’ve always got to try to win big and focus on that position at all times.”
Lurie cited Kelly and his staff and a “terrific young nucleus” of players as reasons to believe the Eagles are on the way toward being Super Bowl contenders.
“There are key areas that are the difference between good and great,” Lurie said. “That’s the hardest thing. You’ve got to go from good to great. We’re at the good. We don’t want that. We want to be great. That’s where we’ve simply got to be better.”
They will have to be better at quarterback. Can Foles return to the level of play he sustained for two months last season? Or was his turnover-prone performance this season a truer reflection of his status? Lurie pointed out that Foles was hampered by injuries to his offensive line, and that’s true. It would have been helpful for Kelly to see Foles play these last eight games, after the line settled in.
That didn’t happen. Kelly said last week that he will have to evaluate Foles on the information available and decide where to go from there. Sanchez signed a one-year deal and is free to pursue a starting opportunity somewhere else. It is doubtful the Eagles will be offering him that.
A year ago, the Eagles’ regular-season finale was in Dallas. They beat the Cowboys to claim the NFC East title. Foles played well in the playoff loss to New Orleans, then was named MVP of his first Pro Bowl. The Eagles seemed to have a quarterback they could believe in.
A year later, there are more questions -- about Foles, about Kelly, about all of them. The offensive line, perhaps the strongest part of the team last year, suddenly looks to be a bit on the older side. Jason Peters (32), Evan Mathis (33) and Todd Herremans (32) only have so much football left to play. The defense, which appeared better midway through the season, came apart at the seams over the last month.
This year’s draft class, with the exception of second-round wide receiver Jordan Matthews, did not do much to improve the team. That makes it fair to wonder how much next year’s rookies can realistically be expected to contribute.
But all of those problems are fixable. The hardest thing in the NFL is finding that elite, championship-caliber quarterback.
Going into his third season, Kelly does not appear any closer to filling that hole than he was the day he got here.
“It’s not easy,” Lurie said. “You’ve got to catch a break. You’re always faced with that. Every team is faced with that. We didn’t go from Peyton to [Andrew] Luck, let’s put it that way.”
