Once upon a time, Nick Foles was the starting QB for a Super Bowl winner, slaying the Tom Brady-led Patriots.
It’s safe to say the shine has worn off. After the Indianapolis QB’s ugly Monday performance against the Chargers, Ben Maller of Fox Sports Radio harshly criticized Foles:
“Outside of his happy place in [Philadelphia], Nick Foles has been a zero around the NFL with all the other teams he’s played for. In this particular game he was in the cockpit on a kamikaze mission on the vomit comet.”
In the 20-3 loss, Foles was 17-for-29 passing for 143 yards, sacked seven times and had as many interceptions as the Colts had points.
Foles’ play over the past several years begs the question: Is he the worst QB to win a Super Bowl?
In Super Bowl LII, Foles led the Eagles to a 41-33 win over the favored Patriots but has not replicated that success since. Outside of Philadelphia’s Super Bowl run and one stellar season under Chip Kelly with the Eagles in 2013, Foles’ NFL career is unspectacular.
Including postseason starts, he has a career record of 33-30. After winning Super Bowl LII MVP, Foles has started 20 games — two in the playoffs — and is 8-12. While completing a healthy 66.4 percent of his passes, he hasn’t been efficient, throwing for 4,861 yards, 24 touchdowns and 21 interceptions on 759 pass attempts.
Foles has strong competition for the title of worst Super Bowl-winning QB.
In 1987, Doug Williams played in five games for Washington, starting two — both losses. But in Super Bowl XXII against John Elway-led Denver, he played out of his mind, throwing for 340 yards and four TDs. During his nine-year NFL career, he went 42-45-1 (including postseason) and completed 48.9 percent of his passes.
And then there’s Trent Dilfer.
In 119 starts (including postseason) from 1994-2007, he went 63-56. Like Williams, Dilfer began his career in Tampa Bay before finding success elsewhere. Unlike Williams, Dilfer wasn’t a factor in his team’s Super Bowl win.
In the 2000 playoffs, the defensive-minded Ravens went 4-0 despite Dilfer, who went 35-for-73 passing (47.9 percent) for 590 yards, three TD passes and an interception.
Dilfer was so uninspiring that the Ravens let him walk in the offseason. Following the Super Bowl win, he went 13-16 for the Seahawks, Browns and 49ers.
A better comp for Foles would be the former Giants Super Bowl-winning QB Jeff Hostetler. Like Foles, Hostetler replaced a QB — in his case Phil Simms — who suffered a late season-ending injury and then won the Super Bowl over an assumed superior opponent.
Those 1990 Giants were 6.5-point underdogs against Hall of Fame QB Jim Kelly and the Buffalo Bills in Super Bowl XXV. Twenty-seven years later, Foles and the Eagles were 4.5-point underdogs against future Hall of Fame QB Tom Brady and the New England Patriots.
This February will mark the five-year anniversary of Philadelphia’s unlikely Super Bowl win. After Monday night, we understand just how improbable that night was.
