Report: Colts to Start QB Nick Foles for final 2 games of season

The Indianapolis Colts are planning to stick with veteran quarterback Nick Foles to close out the final two games of their 2022 season, according to Zak Keefer, a Colts writer for The Athletic.

Just as it was on Monday against Los Angeles, Sam Ehlinger will remain Foles’ backup while Matt Ryan will be inactive.

Foles’ debut as the Colts’ starter came Monday night against the Los Angeles Chargers, and it was less than thrilling with a mediocre 143 passing yards, zero touchdowns, and three interceptions with an ugly 31.9 QBR.

Indianapolis has made more changes at the quarterback position than any other team this season. They’ve benched Matt Ryan twice and turned to the inexperienced Sam Ehlinger the first time around, only to go back to Ryan over the previous four weeks before changing again to Foles early last week. Ehlinger went 0-2 in his only starts against the Washington Commanders and New England Patriots.

Now, Nick Foles is the starter, and even though his performance against an average Los Angeles Chargers defense was mediocre at best, making yet another sudden change at signal-caller isn’t going to drastically fix the issues that have hindered the Colts’ offense for nearly the entire season.

Some fans would want to see Ehlinger close out the regular season, especially if the Colts want to get more of an evaluation on the former sixth-round pick and the role he may have for the organization going forward.

Although Ehlinger faired well in one of his two contests earlier this season, it’s hard to imagine a scenario where he makes Indy’s dreadful offense that much better than Foles at this point in the season.

Truthfully, very few — if any — quarterbacks would find much success behind Indy’s struggling offensive line that’s allowed the second-most sacks in the league up to this point with 56 while the offense has averaged just 16.5 points per game, good for 31st amongst all teams. Only the Denver Broncos have averaged fewer points (15.5) and allowed more sacks (57) than the Colts this season.

Given Indy’s offensive struggles, the decision to stick with Foles is understandable, especially since interim head coach Jeff Saturday recently expressed his confidence in the veteran quarterback’s ability to help the Colts finish their season strong. Indianapolis will be on the road to face the New York Giants Sunday before returning home to close out the regular season against the Houston Texans.