Not a Great Day to be Bill Polian
Bill Polian said on ESPN’s NFL Live that, if he were the Eagles’ GM, he wouldn’t listen to any offers for Nick Foles unless they started with “two 1’s and two 2’s.”
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) February 19, 2018
It appears things could be going better for Bill Polian these days. This take is just plain idiotic. Look, I know Bill Polian to some degree. He has a summer house on Cape Cod in Falmouth. I interned for the Falmouth Commodores for two summers, and I spent probably about 20 games total talking with Bill over the course of that time. He’s a great guy. This is a terrible take.
It’s laughable to think that the Eagles could fetch anything more than a single first rounder for Nick Foles, and even that might be a stretch. By all accounts, Foles was *this* close to quitting football altogether prior to the 2016 season. He had that great 9 game stretch with the Eagles in 2013 under Chip Kelly. Before this immaculate playoff run, that was all he had ever done. GMs aren’t going to give up two 1’s and two 2’s for anything, not after the RG III debacle in Washington. To propose that for a career backup that’s had two brief runs of excellence is a fireable offense.
The problem with Foles is that he isn’t comfortable in a traditional NFL offense. He struggles with the norm. Throw in some up-tempo, make his reads nice and easy at all times, and toy around with the RPO (did you know there’s an NFL thing called an RPO??), Foles comes out looking great. But then again, the Foles postseason could have wound up going much differently.
For starters, Keanu Neal had his football powers sapped by the Moonstars:
immaculate pic.twitter.com/kavmWDrJjl
— The Checkdown (@thecheckdown) January 13, 2018
If anyone can watch this Alshon Jeffery highlight tape from the NFC Championship game and tell me what the hell Harrison Smith is doing, that’d be appreciated:
On the second play in the video, Smith is in no mans land and Foles fires a bullet over him. The first Jeffery TD, Smith is the deep safety. Jeffery is 7 yards behind him when he catches the ball (he’s at the 3, Smith is a half stride inside the 10)
Then Foles lit up a really, really bad Patriots defense that was without Malcolm Butler. But hey, at least they had this guy!
This play pretty much sums up the Elandon Roberts experience. #Eagles run RPO and he drops into coverage (turns his back even!) after Foles hands it off. Where you going bro? #Patriots pic.twitter.com/eZQpxMG3V2
— Evan Lazar (@ezlazar) February 8, 2018
If you check out the Twitter verse right now, Polian is a pretty hot topic. People are angry at him for saying that Lamar Jackson should be a wide receiver in the NFL, which he should. So I guess he’s right 50% of the time, which is still not very good for a Hall of Fame general manager.
Polian was a great GM back in his day. But now he lives in revisionist history where he alone knows how good players will be. Especially after they have a good career. Polian has publicly stated he had first round grades on: Tom Brady, Kurt Warner, Antonio Brown, Priest Holmes, Malcolm Butler, Justin Tuck and Terrell Owens. All but Tuck and Owens were 6th round picks or later. But Polian knew Owens would be too much of a locker room issue. He couldn’t pick him. As for Tuck, well the Colts d-line was covered, so despite the first round grade, Polian couldn’t bring himself to fill out a Justin Tuck draft card. Seems believable.
-Brian Borders (@bborders12)