The Glory of the Backup: The Inspiring Stories of Case Keenum and Nick Foles

The same year that Case Keenum wasn’t drafted, Nick Foles was picked in the third round, by the Philadelphia Eagles. He was 6-foot-6, a more a prototypical quarterback build, and in his final year playing for Arizona Foles threw for 4,334 yards—not too shabby, but not enough to stand out in a deep quarterback class. That same year, Indianapolis selected a guy named Andrew Luck No. 1 overall, with Robert Griffin III going to Washington at No. 2. Russell Wilson, Ryan Tannehill and Brock Osweiler were among the six QBs to be selected before Foles.

But by 2013, as some quarterbacks in the class started to look like busts or succumbed to injury, Foles unleashed a remarkable Pro Bowl caliber year, throwing 27 touchdowns and just two interceptions—the best TD-INT ratio in NFL history.

That stellar season opened the door to …. well, several more of flat-out mediocrity. He struggled the next year with the Eagles, then was traded to the Rams where he was no better. In 2016, he asked to be released, and wound up with the Kansas City Chiefs. During this period, He just about hung up his cleats. He says he didn’t pick up a football for about eight months. He unpacks his struggles in the YouVersion Bible devotional “Audience of One,” headlined by fellow NFL QB Carson Wentz.

“I kept reading scripture, I kept praying, I kept asking God—and so many of us ask God for signs, we ask God, ‘Hey, please just put it on the wall, like, I want to know,’ but that’s not how it works,” Foles said. “He’s not always going to do that. He was shaping me. He was bringing me down to my knees … At that moment, through that prayer, He said, ‘Hey, just take a step of faith. You’re either going to stop playing the game of football and you’re going to go onto a different area of your life and I’m going to be with you, I’m going to be the most important thing in your life, or you’re going to step back into football and you’re going to continue to play and I’m going to be with you every step of the way and you’re going to play to glorify me.”