Nick Foles next? John DeFilippo, who coached in Philly, lands with Jaguars as their new OC

Frank Schwab
·NFL writer

Now that Doug Pederson put the madness to bed and declared Carson Wentz as the Philadelphia Eagles’ starting quarterback, another question becomes fairly important.

Where will Nick Foles be next?

Once we eliminate the possibility of the Eagles exercising a $20 million mutual option for Foles and Foles accepting it to be a backup, one of the biggest stories of the offseason will be where Foles lands. He’ll be forever famous in NFL circles for helping the Eagles win a Super Bowl, and as he showed late this season, he can still play.

One of the easiest connections to make is Foles to the Jacksonville Jaguars, who have a lot of talent but nothing at quarterback. Then on Wednesday the Jaguars agreed to hire John DeFilippo to be their new offensive coordinator, according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport. Before failing with the Minnesota Vikings last season, DeFilippo became a hot name coaching the Eagles quarterbacks, including Foles, two seasons ago.

That won’t slow down the Foles-to-Jacksonville speculation.

John DeFilippo had a tough 2018

The Jaguars presumably didn’t hire DeFilippo just to lure Foles and work with him.

DeFilippo is an interesting case. He is respected around the league and gets a lot of praise from many of the writers who cover the league. Yet, he has been an offensive coordinator twice and neither stint went well.

DeFilippo was the coordinator of the 2015 Cleveland Browns, who finished 25th in yards and 30th in points. That could be excused since it’s the Browns and Johnny Manziel was his quarterback. It’s harder to figure out how it went so poorly the Vikings, who finished 20th in yards and 19th in points despite a lot of talent on offense.

The Jaguars are still betting on the upside of DeFilippo, that all the respect and plaudits for him are accurate and he turns around a bad offense. Getting a good quarterback would help, and a familiar face to him should be available.

Nick Foles will be a hot offseason name

Foles will consider many factors other than offensive coordinator when he picks a new team. Money, for one. And two, and three.

But if the Jaguars want Foles and have a competitive offer, the fit makes sense. The Jaguars were very good in 2017, making the AFC championship game. In 2018 they were miserably coached, and that might not change, but all coaches look smarter with better quarterback play.

Maybe Foles ends up in Jacksonville, or perhaps some other team makes a stronger play for him. But he likely won’t be back in Philadelphia, and we have two months to figure out where he’ll go.

The Jaguars hired former Minnesota Vikings offensive coordinator John DeFilippo to run their offense. (AP)
The Jaguars hired former Minnesota Vikings offensive coordinator John DeFilippo to run their offense. (AP)

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Frank Schwab is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdown.corner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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