Jaws Ranks Foles 15th; King Has Eagles 8th


Photo by: Jeff Fusco.

Photo by: Jeff Fusco.

A couple quick afternoon notes…

Ron Jaworski recently wrapped up his annual QB rankings for ESPN and had Nick Foles coming in at No. 15:

People may be surprised that I have Foles this high, but he had an unbelievable 2013 season and deserves this spot. He dropped back over 400 times last season and threw only two interceptions. In the red zone, he threw 16 TDs with zero picks. Foles reads defenses well, knowing both where his receivers are going and where defenders are relative to those receivers. Chip Kelly’s system makes the reads easier, but Foles did a terrific job running the Eagles’ up-tempo offense and excelled against the blitz. His QB rating was 130 when there were five or more rushers.

The following quarterbacks (starting at the top) were ranked ahead of Foles: Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees, Andrew Luck, Ben Roethlisberger, Philip Rivers, Matt Ryan, Russell Wilson, Joe Flacco, Eli Manning, Tony Romo, Colin Kaepernick and Cam Newton.

Foles is ranked just ahead of Matthew Stafford, Alex Smith, Andy Dalton and Jay Cutler.

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National media opinions are starting to trickle in, and one writer who seems pretty high on the Eagles is Peter King of The MMQB. He’s got the Birds No. 8 overall in his Fine 15:

Chip Kelly, with a year to study. That’s dangerous. Also think Nick Foles wasn’t a fluke.

Ahead of the Eagles (from the top) are: the Seahawks, Packers, 49ers, Saints, Colts, Broncos and Patriots. Four of the top five teams in King’s rankings are on the Eagles’ schedule, and the top four are all in the NFC.

King doesn’t have any other NFC East teams in his top 15.