Chip Kelly says Nick Foles is ‘the starting quarterback for the next 1,000 years’
By Mike Dyce
It looks like the season long debate over who the Philadelphia Eagles starting quarterback is has come to an end. Head coach Chip Kelly refused to commit to a starting quarterback, but last week he said Nick Foles would be the starting quarterback for the remainder of the season.
“Nick will be our starter,” Kelly said last week. “Hopefully we get Mike back for a full week of practice, and he’ll be the No. 2 guy this week.”
On Monday he was willing to extended Foles’ starting quarterback role beyond the season and expressed hope that Foles was the franchise quarterback.
“Yeah, you hope,” Kelly told 94WIP. “But — and I don’t mean to be coy, I always say this — is that, you can say that whomever it is, is your player of the future and then next week they get hurt. You know, so, I hope Nick [Foles] is here for a long time. I’m a big supporter of him, I think he does a fantastic job, but we also know that injuries occur in this game and that’s why I always qualify what I say. I love the kid and I think he’s playing outstanding.”
Kelly even went further in giving a timeline for Foles at quarterback.
Chip Kelly on Nick Foles: “He’s the starting quarterback for the next 1,000 years here."
— Reuben Frank (@RoobNBCS) December 2, 2013
Foles said last week the pressure of being named the starting quarterback won’t change anything.
“I feel the same,” Foles said. “Nothing’s changed in the way I am or who I am or the way I approach the game, how I am on the practice field, how I am in the locker room.
“I’ve always stayed true to who I am, and I’ve just got to continue to approach the game the same way every week.”