ESPN analyst and former Super Bowl winning quarterback Trent Dilfer is a big fan of Philadelphia Eagles head coach Chip Kelly - even going so far as to recently refer to him as "the finest football coach I've ever studied," according to USA Today.
During a recent visit with Jon and Sean on 97.5 The Fanatic this week, Dilfer expanded on his thoughts on Kelly's program-building nature, team-over-scheme focus and the positive outlook currently permeating Philadelphia.
He also spoke at length about quarterback Nick Foles and Kelly's propensity to move on from quarterbacks he deems unable to successfully employ his equal-opportunity scoring attack.
"Well, Chip's history is that he's not afraid to move on from quarterbacks. I think that's been well-documented. [I] do think he values some things from Nick Foles, as he should," said Dilfer, as quoted by Philly Mag. "Nick is extremely tough. He plays very well with people around him. He is a guy who can process a lot of information quickly. He's a great teammate. He's an unselfish guy. He's always been able to get the most from the people around him."
Foles, who somewhat took the NFL by storm last season - throwing 27 touchdowns and only two interceptions - has not had nearly the same statistical success this year - his completion percentage is 59.5, down four percentage points from last year, and he's thrown only 10 touchdowns while already having seven interceptions, ESPN reports.
He hasn't played altogether poorly while leading the Eagles to a 5-1 record - he's just been much more inconsistent than last year.
"I think the mistakes that have happened is when he's trying to do too much. He's a guy that when he just plays within the x's and o's, and every once in a while plays outside of them, he's fine. He's actually very efficient. It's when he tries to go outside the x's and o's and put on the Superman cape so to speak, when he tries to do something exceptional, it gets him in trouble."
There were a couple instances of this tendency in last week's 27-0 shutout of the New York Giants. Foles threw two poor interceptions when plays broke down and he tried to make something happen instead of just throwing the ball away.
Dilfer doesn't excuse Foles for these mistakes, but he does see them as correctable errors that are simply byproducts of a still-young quarterback growing into his potential.
"But he's a young player. I'm like the biggest apologist in the world for these young quarterbacks because I know how big the job is. And when they have success early on and then they hit some rough spells, everyone goes, 'Aww, he stinks!' Well no, he's learning. He's still learning every single Sunday he goes out there. And he's seeing different looks and he's seeing different experiences, more situations."
Dilfer maintains he is a Foles backer and while he understands Chip's nature to move on from signal-callers more easily than some, he doesn't think Philadelphia is ready to do that just yet.
"So, I'm a big Nick Foles guy. I don't see why you'd move on. But I do think we need to give these kids three, four years before we label 'em. And he's not even there yet."
