By Lewis Gould
Nick Foles turned 26 yesterday — Nicholas Edward Foles was born January 20, 1989, in Austin Texas — and I don’t know how he celebrated but my guess is that he had another reason to throw a party:
Bill Musgrave is no longer the Eagles’ quarterbacks coach, having signed on with the Raiders as offensive coordinator.
That means that Foles will have his fourth quarterbacks coach in his four seasons in the NFL.
Musgrave replaced Bill Lazor, who left last January to become offensive coordinator of the Miami Dolphins. In 2012, Foles’ rookie season, the Eagles’ quarterbacks coach was Doug Pederson. Pederson followed Andy Reid to Kansas City, where he is now Reid’s offensive coordinator.
Of the three position coaches he has had, Foles had the most success under Lazor. In Chip Kelly’s first season as Eagles head coach, Foles completed 203 of 317 passes (64 percent) for 2,891 yards and 27 touchdowns. Foles threw just two interceptions all season.
With Musgrave learning Kelly’s system as he worked with the quarterbacks, Foles had a decidedly more ordinary season in 2014. Foles completed 186 of 311 passes (59.8 percent) for 2,163 yards and 13 touchdowns. Foles threw 10 interceptions in his seven starts before breaking his collarbone.
Those numbers were more like 2012, under Pederson, when Foles completed 161 of 265 passes (60.8 percent) for 1,699 yards and six touchdowns. Foles threw five interceptions in seven games as a rookie.
Foles, according to ESPN.com’s Phil Sheridan, reportedly butted heads with Lazor in 2013. It might be that Lazor’s intense style got the most out of Foles, while Musgrave’s more relaxed approach didn’t have the same results. Foles had nothing but good things to say about Musgrave during the season.
