Paul Daugherty: All Bill Lazor has to do is rehab Andy Dalton. Simple, right?

In early November 2013, a second-year NFL quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles named Nick Foles came off a week of concussion protocol to throw seven touchdown passes against the Oakland Raiders, in just his ninth pro start. That tied a record.       

Foles had a perfect QB Rating that afternoon. He averaged 14.5 yards per attempt and 18 yards per catch. He didn’t throw an interception. Playing QB in the NFL is hard. It’s arguably the hardest job in sports. Except on that day.          

On the sidelines wearing a headset was a guy hired that season by rookie Eagles coach Chip Kelly. Bill Lazor had worked for Dan Reeves, Mike Holmgren and Joe Gibbs, all pedigreed offensive minds, but never for a guy quite like Chip Kelly, who intended for the circus-act offense he ran at Oregon to terrorize the pros.       

 And there was Lazor, his quarterbacks coach, co-piloting this dreamy Sunday flight.      

“Everything you talked about in the meeting room, as far as the opponent’s tendencies and what could happen (successfully), it all happened,’’ Lazor said this week.      

Such as?    

Lazor saying to Foles, “If you get this particular safety in the middle of the field, he is going to follow your eyes.  So, you can move him over here and throw a post behind him. Boom. That’s what happened. It was just one after another like that.   

“We were laughing on the sidelines. It was just one of those days.’’  

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Foles threw 27 TD passes that year, and just two interceptions. The Miami Dolphins hired Lazor to coordinate their offense after that season. Foles broke his collarbone halfway through the next season, then got traded to St. Louis for Sam Bradford, got benched for poor play, then cut after the (now-Los Angeles) Rams drafted Jared Goff.               

Foles was the backup in Kansas City last year, a spot he now holds back in Philly. 

Nick Foles was a footnote in Philly when he arrived, a comet for a season and a footnote forever after. And now Bill Lazor coaches the Bengals quarterbacks, after almost two tumultuous seasons coordinating the Dolphins offense.   

You wonder if Lazor can do for the Bengals what he did for the Eagles. Andy Dalton is more accomplished than Foles, or Ryan Tannehill, whom Lazor tutored in Miami to mixed results. But Dalton is staggering now, his confidence wobbly, his discomfort level at an all-time high.           

All Lazor has to do is rehab Dalton. Is he the guy to do it?         

Back to Foles, possibly for the answer.        

Foles became the Eagles QB in 2013 only after Michael Vick got hurt.          

“The thing I noticed about Nick right away was he could process a lot of information and he was an accurate touch passer,’’ Lazor said. Sound familiar?  

Vick got hurt late in the second quarter of the Eagles third game, against the New York Giants. Foles came in and hit his first six throws.     

“He was able on the field to execute things he’d only practiced with me on a separate field, not with the team. I was shocked he could handle it,’’ Lazor said. Three weeks later, Foles threw the seven TDs against the Raiders.      

This isn’t to say Bill Lazor is a faith healer/miracle worker/Bill Walsh. He helped Tannehill become better in 2014, then Tannehill slipped in 2015 and Lazor got fired before the season ended.          

It is to suggest that a big change is possible with this guy calling plays.          

I asked him about the art and science of play-calling. “Number one priority is our best players and who we want to get the ball to. Then, it’s what are the things we do well? Then, what are our opponent’s weaknesses and how do we attack them?    

“Hopefully you only have great calls on game day. You want the quarterback to trust that you’ve got an answer for him every play.’’ Andy Dalton would appreciate that. It might return him to the glorious Good Andy Days of 2015.        

Nick Foles and Bill Lazor landed in a good spot: In 2013, the Eagles offensive line was talented and healthy, LeSean McCoy led the league in rushing yards. Kelly’s offense was new enough to the league to cause problems. And you could argue it was Kelly himself who had the most impact on Foles’ ’13 season.

In that respect, Lazor still has a lot to prove.         

“The challenge here right now is making things come out of my mouth real smooth,’’ he said. “I can’t have any errors. I want (Dalton) to get it in his headset perfectly.        

“By this point in the season, it should be like the language you were born speaking. I’m not at that point yet.’’             

Neither is anyone else at PBS. That’s why Lazor switched offices. He doesn’t have to do a Nick Foles job with Dalton. He just has to restore some confidence and get his QB playing the way he did for 12 games two years ago. Only the season is riding on it.                      

Meantime... two interceptions? In an entire year?        

“The first one was in that unbelievable snow game against Detroit, when you couldn’t even see the lines of the field,’’ Lazor said. “Not saying (Foles) wouldn’t have thrown it anyway. . .’’