The replacements: McCown, Foles, McGloin impressing as starters

The NFL is a passing league, which puts a considerable amount of weight on the starting quarterback. When the franchise passer goes down, the backup quarterback becomes the most talked about player on the team, and usually doesn’t back up the attention the media gives him. We’ve seen the ghastly results of the 2010 Indianapolis Colts, the 2011 Chicago Bears, or even the Green Bay Packers of today without Aaron Rodgers. The worst feeling as a fan is to see your quarterback go down with injury. A large part of that is due to the lack of quality backups across the league.

That is why the emergence of Josh McCown of the Bears, Nick Foles of the Philadelphia Eagles and Matt McGloin of the Oakland Raiders has been so stunning.

McCown is on the eighth team of his professional career and holds a career 73.6 quarterback rating at the age of 34. He was supposedly a known commodity, a veteran spot-starter who can mentor someone with considerably more talent. When Jay Cutler went down with injury, McCown stepped in and punched well above his weight class. In the four games he has played in this season, McCown has thrown five touchdowns (with no interceptions) and is the owner of a 100.0 quarterback rating.

In his two starts, McCown topped division rival Green Bay in primetime and beat defending Super Bowl champion Baltimore in a tight overtime contest. In both games, he used gigantic targets Brandon Marshall, Alshon Jeffrey and Martellus Bennett to his advantage, and McCown isn’t afraid to test single coverage with those weapons on the field. The Bears are starting to show depth with their pass-catchers, which makes life easier for a longtime backup like McCown. With his impressive play, should he keep the starting job over Jay Cutler?

“The biggest test remaining for McCown is staying power,” said Chicago Sun-Times reporter Mark Potash. (link: http://www.suntimes.com/sports/football/bears/23867893-419/without-trestmans-system-bears-josh-mccown-isnt-this-good.html) “Even in (head coach Marc)Trestman’s offense, the line between success and failure is as fine as ever in the NFL. It remains to be seen if McCown is riding a wave or has reached a new plateau in his career. But make no mistake about it, he’s in the right place, with the right coach, at the right time.”

The NFL has never seen McCown play at this high of a level before. Part of that might be because of Bears head coach and quarterback-wiz Marc Trestman. Cutler will become the starter once again, but only when he is 100 percent healthy and ready to go.

While the consensus in Chicago seems to be that Cutler will be handed the starting duties once healthy, the majority in Philadelphia believe Foles will remain the Eagles starter no matter how healthy Michael Vick is, and for good reason. Foles is the owner of a 16:0 touchdown-to-interception ratio, and just needs five more touchdowns to break Peyton Manning’s record to start the season, which was also set in 2013.

Foles’s best attribute coming out of the University of Arizona was his rocket-launcher arm. He leads the NFL in yards-per-attempt with 9.59, so it’s looking like his deep ball is still beating defenses at the pro level.

Although Foles doesn’t look the part of a speedy Chip Kelly-option quarterback, last Sunday he had 47 rushing yards compared to Robert Griffin III’s 44. He won’t put up those rushing numbers every week, but he can still pick up easy yardage when needed. To jump to the next level, Foles will have to get rid of the ball quicker. His deep ball looks pretty on highlight reels, but when Foles’s target isn’t there, he leaves himself vulnerable to pass rushers. Foles has a sack percentage of 7.0, worse than Manning’s mark of 3.1 and Drew Brees’s mark of 5.1.

That minor quip aside, Foles has taken advantage of a light schedule and has the Eagles in the NFC East lead while putting up absurd passing numbers. Unlike McCown, he is just 24 years old and his best football just might be ahead of him. Foles won’t just cement himself as Philly’s starter at this pace; he has a shot at becoming an MVP candidate.

The rookie of the group, McGloin, has one start to his name against the 2-8 Houston Texans. He threw three touchdowns and no interceptions in the win, and looked significantly more comfortable than an undrafted first-year player should have been. Perhaps McGloin’s most impressive quality is the gigantic chip on his shoulder. According to NFL analyst John Middlekauff, McGloin got angry at his teammates for chanting “Rudy” after the win. “Rudy,” of course, being a reference to the undersized and overlooked Notre Dame player who was the inspiration for the movie that shares his name. He feels like his performance wasn’t a fluke, and he wants everyone to know that.

Unlike McCown and Foles, McGloin didn’t impress scouts enough at Penn State to warrant a high draft pick. He tried out for Washington and Carolina before he found a spot on Oakland’s quarterback-hungry roster. For all we know, the Houston game could have been an outlier, and McGloin will fall back to Earth against Tennessee. But as seen with Matt Flynn, one strong start in the NFL can help you hang around for quite some time, which is a much better outlook than McGloin had a month ago.

McGloin displayed a quick release and trust in his receivers against the Texans, and the Raiders organization will be eager to see what he can do against the Titans. With starter Terrelle Pryor nursing a knee injury, McGloin can’t have any mishaps in order to get more playing time in Oakland.

Before the start of this season, none of these quarterbacks were hailed as the answer. They weren’t drafted in the top 10, and for well-understood reasons, they are known as replacements. As replacements, there are three distinct possibilities for their future: They could quietly go back to the bench as a savvy veteran, like McCown. They could emerge as a high-end starter with a shot at the Pro Bowl, like Foles. Or, they could make the most of their one chance and keep their ambitious dream alive, like McGloin. There just might be more answers out there at quarterback than the NFL thought.

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—Ed Reed released by Houston Texans after stupid comments