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In the wake of the news that Mike Kafka fractured his left hand, rookie Nick Foles has been taking snaps with the second team at Eagles camp.
Foles had a fantastic Eagles debut against the Steelers last Thursday going 6-10 for 144 yards and a pair TDs. While it was against 3rd stringers, Foles showed surprising pocket presence, accuracy and a big arm. While Trent Edwards also turned in a good performance in the 4th quarter, Foles looks like the guy who will come in after Michael Vick against the Patriots in preseason game two.
Foles says his only focus now is getting better.
"It's continual improvement. The game is going to keep getting faster and faster, and I'm going to have to keep studying harder and harder. I'm going to work at it every day. The competition is getting greater. Even at practice, I'm getting more reps and seeing a lot more movement, which is going to benefit me just getting out there and seeing more repetitions. I love to play, so just getting out there and getting reps is just fun for me."
It would be easy for Foles to get a little full of himself after Thursday night, but he was more focused on his mistakes.
"Just when - for example, the defense is giving us something like a run play and the defense is showing that they know it - it is my job as a quarterback to help us get out of it. There are different things like that. A couple times even on the plays that went well like the [touchdown pass to WR Mardy Gilyard], even though it might've been a good play, there are still little technical things that I can make better. It's the little things that you don't want to take for granted. You have to work on the little things in football, and hopefully it carries over to the big things."
And that really is the key with Foles. The fact is that we've seen Mike Kafka have some really good preseason games. It's nice, but ultimately doesn't mean all that much. One good preseason game is a very small first step in a very long journey. Next Thursday, he'll see a little better competition with a little more expectations. I'm sure we'll all be interested to see how he handles it.