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NFL Report: Foles' disappointing season not a surprise

Jeff Fisher promised the Nick Foles era was not over in St. Louis after the Rams coach announced he had benched the former Eagles quarterback Monday, and that's probably true. You have to believe Case Keenum, the undrafted QB du jour for the Rams, will make it possible for Foles to start again before the season is over.

Jeff Fisher promised the Nick Foles era was not over in St. Louis after the Rams coach announced he had benched the former Eagles quarterback Monday, and that's probably true. You have to believe Case Keenum, the undrafted QB du jour for the Rams, will make it possible for Foles to start again before the season is over.

This, of course, is no time for the Eagles or Chip Kelly to gloat about the trade that brought Sam Bradford to Philadelphia from the Rams. The Eagles, their coach, and their quarterback have enough issues of their own, including a 4-5 record that is identical to the disappointing mark that helped send Foles to the bench in St. Louis.

By pure coincidence, this will also be the first week the Eagles play without Bradford as he recovers from the concussion and left shoulder injury that knocked him out of last Sunday's loss to the Miami Dolphins. A tweet from SportsCenter last week declared that "the Nick Foles for Sam Bradford trade this offseason doesn't look like it's meeting either team's expectations."

That's true, but at least Bradford was trending upward when he went down against the Dolphins. Foles, on the other hand, had regressed to the point that Fisher and the Rams had no choice but to bench him in favor of Keenum, a guy with a 2-8 career record as a starter and a 55.2 completion percentage.

You look at Foles' numbers or his actual performance on the field, and you wonder how he ever put together the 2013 season that gave Eagles fans the false hope he could be the team's next franchise quarterback. In seven of his nine starts this season he has failed to throw for 200 yards, and he has thrown more than one touchdown pass in a game just once. In four games, he failed to throw for even one touchdown. Only five of his 24 starts with the Eagles ended without him throwing a touchdown. He threw for 200 or more yards in 18 of his starts and 300 or more eight times.

But now, even after signing a two-year extension that guaranteed him nearly $14 million, Foles is on the bench, and you have to wonder when the Rams will go in a different direction when the season is over.

We should not be surprised by this development. At least when the Eagles acquired Bradford, they were gambling on a guy who had been a former first overall draft pick. For the most part, first-rounders are the guys who win in this league.

Of the 32 quarterbacks who have started the majority of games for their teams this season, 19 of them are former first-round picks, four others are second-round picks, and three are third-round picks. Five others were taken after the third round and one was undrafted.

You can hit the jackpot in the third round and beyond. Seattle has been to the last two Super Bowls with Russell Wilson, who was taken 13 spots ahead of Foles. Joe Montana was a third-round pick, too, and we all know the sixth-round Tom Brady story. Undrafted guys like Kurt Warner and Tony Romo have worked out well, too.

But littered among those rare, serendipitous, lower-round success stories are lots of failures and tons of mediocrity. Of course, first-round selections can fail, too, and perhaps Bradford is going to be one of those sad stories. Fifteen of the league's 19 starters who were first-round picks have played at least 50 games, and of that group only three have losing career records. Bradford, at 22-35-1, has the worst winning percentage. The other two are Miami's Ryan Tannehill and Detroit's Matthew Stafford.

So maybe we won't know who won this trade until after all the draft picks are made, because right now the two quarterbacks involved are sidelined with 4-5 records and have created a lot more doubt than buzz in their respective cities.

Different view of 4-5

When Eagles fans look at their team's 4-5 record, they see a disappointing team that has underachieved. In other places, however, 4-5 represents a rise to respectability that was unanticipated. One of those places is Chicago.

The thought before the season was that the Bears could be the worst team in the NFL in coach John Fox's first season, but he is proving, as he did in Carolina and Denver, that he is among the league's best coaches. Since an 0-3 start in which they were outscored by a combined 59 points, the Bears have gone 4-2, with the two losses coming by a combined total of six points.

During that stretch, mercurial quarterback Jay Cutler has thrown 11 touchdowns against just three interceptions and posted a 98.7 passer rating.

Rice still hoping, waiting

Former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice went on a radio show in New York last week and said that it is the video of him hitting his then-fiance and now-wife, Janay, in an Atlantic City elevator rather than his ability on the field that is preventing his return to an NFL team.

"I know the video has had that kind of impact," Rice said. "To bring in a guy like me, it becomes a big issue. If a sponsor dropped off board, that plays a lot."

It's a valid point. If there was a video to go along with those graphic photographs of the bruises all over the body of Greg Hardy's ex-girlfriend Nicole Holder, it probably would have been impossible for the Cowboys to stand by their defensive end. Without the video, they were able to make some empty statements and move on.

Thumbs up

Arizona quarterback Carson Palmer would not elaborate on why, but at least he did not use the cliché that "this is just another game" when asked about going against Cincinnati, the team that drafted him first overall in 2003. "Any time you play a team where you spent some time, especially for as much time as I spent there, it's not just another game," Palmer said. The fact that he had a heated dispute with Bengals owner Mike Brown before being traded to Oakland in 2011 only adds to the intrigue on Sunday. Brown mostly took the high road in talking about Palmer, but did say the quarterback told him he probably would only play another year or two after leaving the Bengals because he was so banged up. Now, of course, Palmer is playing the best football of his life.

Thumbs down

One of the cheapest shots you'll ever see came from Denver safety T.J. Ward last week on former Eagles receiver Jeremy Maclin. As Kansas City's Charcandrick West completed an 80-yard touchdown reception from Alex Smith, Maclin sprinted in front of Ward to make sure he did not make the tackle. As Maclin and Ward fell to the ground, the Denver safety punched the Chiefs receiver in the head. In addition to being dirty, it's also stupid to punch a man wearing a helmet. Ward was flagged during the game and later fined $10,000. In his last two games, Ward has been fined $33,150 for hitting Maclin, hitting a defenseless player, and wearing an untucked jersey. The Denver Post reports that Broncos defensive players have been fined $420,334 already this season.

Weekend's best

Top early afternoon game: Washington at Carolina

The unbeaten Panthers have scored 27 points or more in seven straight games. Along with the Patriots, they are the only team to score at least 20 points in every game this season. Washington quarterback Kirk Cousins has thrown eight touchdowns and one interception in his last three games.

Top late afternoon game: Green Bay at Minnesota

Aaron Rodgers' passer rating has been below 100 for three straight games for the first time since 2012, and the Packers have lost all three games, allowing the Vikings to move into first place in the NFC North. Rodgers, bothered by a shoulder injury, has not gone four straight games with a passer rating below 100 since 2010. The Vikings last won the division in 2009.

Sunday night game: Cincinnati at Arizona

The 39 points put up by the Cardinals last week in Seattle was the most allowed by the Seahawks since the 49ers scored 40 on Dec. 12, 2010. Cardinals QB Carson Palmer is averaging 305.4 yards passing per game. That's 29 yards more than any other season in his 12-year career. The Bengals were held to a season-low 271 yards in their Monday night loss to Houston.

Monday night game: Buffalo at New England

Tom Brady's 466 passing yards in the Patriots' Week 2 win over the Bills in Buffalo was the second highest total of his career, but it will be interesting to see what impact the season-ending injuries to wide receiver Julian Edelman and running back Dion Lewis have on the Pats' offense. LeSean McCoy has put up back-to-back 112-yard rushing games after accumulating just 304 yards in his first five games.

bbrookover@phillynews.com

@brookob