Nick Foles Believes He Is A Fit With Chip

During Nick Foles‘ session with reporters Wednesday, Jason Kelce and Todd Herremans — up to no good — ducked their heads in to check out the scene.

“Tell them how fast you are, Nick!”

“Yeah, tell them how fast you are!”

That got the normally straight-faced Foles to smile. He quickly reverted back to his stoic self, pushing through questions about how he, as a square peg, will fit Chip Kelly‘s round world.

“Chip hasn’t defined an offense, he just does up-tempo,” said Foles in his first comments since Kelly was hired. “I remember playing against him in college and it was up-tempo. I believe whoever the quarterback is, whoever is the leader of the team, you build your offense around that.

“I feel like I can go in and run anything. I love this team, I’m getting to know the coaches, and I’m here to compete.”

Competitive spirit aside, Foles knows he can’t “run anything.” This is what he said about the possibility of running the read-option under Kelly the day Andy Reid was fired.

“I think you know the answer — I have never ran the zone read; I’m more of a dropback [QB], but I’ve been under center, I’ve been in the gun,” said Foles. “If I can adapt I want to, but I’m not a zone read quarterback. Some people are gifted with different things, that’s just not one of my skill sets.”

Foles said Wednesday that he did run the option in high school “a couple times.”

Kelly has maintained that he will tailor his offense to the strengths of his players, and that mobility is not a prerequisite to play quarterback for him. Foles insists that he was not concerned about his future in Philadelphia when he heard that Kelly was tabbed as the head coach, and tuned out the trade rumors that surfaced shortly thereafter. The QB said that he and Kelly never discussed the possibility of a trade, and so operated under the assumption that he would remain an Eagle.

Foles  has an idea of the kind of offense Kelly plans on deploying here in Philadelphia, but had no interest in divulging the specifics.

Whatever it is, do you feel like you fit in it?

“Yeah, I do,” he said. “I wouldn’t be right here, right now if I didn’t. I think I would be somewhere else. Yeah, I believe I fit here, I want to be here. I love this team and I love this city. This is where I want to be.”

DeSean Jackson talked about the prospects of Foles operating in Kelly’s system.

“Nick Foles is a special player. Even though he’s kind of big and lanky I still think he’s able to have mobility and sling the ball and move up in the pocket and do some things,” said Jackson. “He’s never been in an offense like this before so it’s really hard for me to say how he would fit into it. When minicamps come maybe I’ll be able to answer your question a little better. But I think he’ll do fine. He’s a great quarterback.”

Kelly’s decision to bring Michael Vick back and sign Dennis Dixon helped bolster the theory that the read option was on its way to Philly. But Foles is still in the mix and is out to capture the starting gig, however odd the pairing may seem.

“You want the best quarterbacks possible to compete against one another, and Mike’s one of the best in the league. I believe that,” said Foles. “We want competition, we want the best quarterbacks. We’re all on the same team, we’re all going to compete against each other, and the guy that can score the most points and be a leader is going to be the guy. We’re all going to work together, and somebody’s going to be that guy.

“If you want to be a quarterback in this league, or even in Pee-Wee or something, you gotta believe, ‘Hey, I’m the guy.’ If you think, ‘I’m the backup,’ you’re going to be the backup. That’s how it is. That’s the mindset, always.”

Become a fan of Birds 24/7 on Facebook.