Nick Foles' ascension to the role of starting quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles last season was aided in large part by an injury to incumbent signal caller, Mike Vick. Could that same situation be playing out again, this time, with Foles being the one unseated?
After performing relatively well in relief of an injured Foles this past weekend against the Houston Texans, Mark Sanchez could potentially, though not likely, be on the verge of usurping Foles' starting spot, according to Marcus Hayes of the Philadelphia Daily News.
Sanchez showed surprisingly good command of an offense he'd never before led in a live game situation, finishing the day 15-for-22 with 202 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions.
Coach Chip Kelly seemingly gave Sanchez a rather large vote of confidence by calling a deep post route on Sanchez's first snap.
"How about that, huh?" Sanchez said afterward. "I was expecting maybe a handoff, or maybe a screen, to kind of ease my way in. If [Kelly] was a basketball coach, he'd bring you off the bench and have you shooting three-pointers."
Prior to Sunday's action, Sanchez, who quarterbacked the New York Jets for nearly five seasons after being drafted in the first round, fifth overall, and this past season signed a one-year deal with Philadelphia, hadn't seen the field in nearly 22 months.
"This league will expose you," he said. "It's been a while . . . I felt like I was ready. I was prepared. You want to get the first throw out of the way, and thanks to Chip we throw it right down the field. That'll get your nerves gone."
Kelly seemed pleased with Sanchez's game.
"I thought he had real good command of what he was doing," Kelly said. "I don't think we missed a beat."
Sanchez, who entered the league and the Jets organization to much fanfare and eventually limped out of New York with a legacy defined almost entirely by unfulfilled expectations and epitomized by a now infamous play known simply as the "butt-fumble," has faced intense levels of scrutiny over his NFL career.
"Sanchez basically spent five years on a black couch in the nation's biggest media market," writes Mike Sielski of The Philadelphia Inquirer. "Everyone, from fans to former teammates, turned into an amateur Freud or Jung, trying to account for Sanchez's regression from a quarterback who helped the Jets reach back-to-back AFC championship games to one who committed an NFL-high 52 turnovers over the 2011 and 2012 seasons and lost 12 of the final 18 games he started."
The now 27-year-old Sanchez may be in a position to regain his confidence and a starting spot - though there are no guarantees of either - and is in a seemingly favorable situation.
The Eagles are a team driven by their running game and a strong defense, Hayes notes. Thanks to Kelly's offensive system, the signal caller, probably more so than any other team in the league, is not as vital and therefore does not face as difficult a task commanding the unit.
After reports pegged Nick Foles' broken collarbone as a 6-8 week injury, it became apparent that Sanchez will be the starter in Philly at least until almost the end of the regular season.
What he does with that opportunity remains to be seen. But a strong showing will tell the NFL, and Chip Kelly, a lot about Sanchez's future.
