Everything about Nick Foles is virtually unbelievable.

He looks the part of an NFL quarterback at 6-foot-6. He once flashed franchise potential as the Philadelphia Eagles' successor to Michael Vick. He's got a statue outside Lincoln Financial Field.

But it wasn't until after he'd been traded away, cut, benched and pondered retirement that he won the city a title. And even that came against all odds, with Foles replacing an injured MVP candidate in Carson Wentz, whose loss seemed like it would doom an otherwise magical year, then torching the NFL's No. 1-ranked defense in the NFC Championship and unleashing the best performance of his career against this generation's greatest dynasty in the Super Bowl.

Now, as Foles replaces an ailing Wentz for the second straight December, he's fresh off two consecutive upsets and blazing toward another potential playoff run. The NFL, meanwhile, is left to wonder whether the legend of St. Nick is more reality than fantasy. Foles will always have his historic playoff run of 2017, a vindication of sorts for both his polarizing career and the Eagles' long overdue title drought, but is he truly, you know, good? Has he simply been the best Johnny-on-the-spot the sport has ever seen?

It turns out that for as unique as Foles' career has been, it's also been more clutch than even his biggest supporters might suggest.

Foles outpaces the NFL in game-winning drive percentage

If it seems like Foles is always bringing his best under the brightest lights, that's because he is. Here's a look at how he's fared over his entire two-stint career with the Eagles (2012-2014, 2017-present):

Total starts: 31
Total game-winning drives: 10
Rough percentage of starts with game-winning drives: 32.3%

Those numbers, per Pro Football Reference, suggest that just about one in three Foles starts end in him leading the Eagles to a game-winning drive (GWD).

Are GWDs a perfect measure of a quarterback's "clutchness?" Absolutely not. If you've played your entire career with a bad team, you may have far fewer chances to even be in a position to win a close game. Ditto if you've got an offense that can't block or catch for you. On the flip side, if you only ever enter the game in the fourth quarter, or if your defense blows so many games that you end up having to win them, your chances might go up.

Consider, though, the numbers of the top 15 active starting QBs in terms of total career GWDs:

Quarterback

Game-winning drives (GWD)

Career starts

Rough percentage, starts with GWD

Tom Brady

55

266

20.7%

Drew Brees

51

263

19.9%

Ben Roethlisberger

45

213

21.1%

Eli Manning

42

229

18.3%

Matt Ryan

36

173

20.8%

Matthew Stafford

33

140

23.6%

Philip Rivers

31

207

14.9%

Russell Wilson

26

111

23.4%

Joe Flacco

26

163

15.9%

Andy Dalton

24

120

20%

Alex Smith

23

161

14.3%

Aaron Rodgers

22

157

14%

Andrew Luck

21

85

24.7%

Cam Newton

17

122

13.9%

Derek Carr

16

77

20.8%

As you can see, most of these quarterbacks has significantly more starts than Foles with the Eagles. And as you may have presumed, that means their percentages of starts with GWDs are also significantly lower. In fact, the average percentage among the 15 starters (19%) suggests Foles is leading GWDs almost 2.5 times as much as the average top-15 QB here.

But move on to the next tier of GWD leaders, and it's still apparent that Foles is leading the pack by a country mile.

Quarterback

GWD

Career starts

Rough percentage, starts with GWD

Matt Schaub

14

92

15.2%

Matt Cassel

12

81

14.8%

Ryan Fitzpatrick

13

126

10.3%

Case Keenum

11

53

20.75%

Nick Foles (Eagles)

10

31

32.3%

Derek Anderson

7

49

14.3%

Blaine Gabbert

7

47

14.9%

Josh McCown

7

76

9.2%

Geno Smith

7

31

22.6%

Brian Hoyer

6

37

16.2%

You'd think that, perhaps, the QBs with fewer total starts might get lucky with better GWD ratios, but it turns out they're actually worse than the top-15 guys -- the average GWD percentage for these next-tier QBs is lower (17%), and only three of them had a percentage over 20 compared to eight of the top-15 names.

So what does it tell us about Foles?

For one, not a single NFL QB is leading GWDs at the rate he has with the Eagles. And that's obviously not accounting for other performances we common folk would deem "clutch," such as when he led a blowout of the 13-3 Minnesota Vikings for a spot in Super Bowl LII. Even if you lump the rest of Foles' career into his numbers, adding in 11 starts with the Rams and one with the Chiefs, he still leads both groups in GWD percentage (25.6%).

Of past and present QBs with comparable ratios, only Tim Tebow greatly supersedes him with seven GWDs in 16 starts (43.8%).

Does it prove Foles is flat-out better than everyone? Not really, because, well, Tebow. And no one's going to see Aaron Rodgers' measly GWD percentage (14%) and all of sudden say he's no good. (Maybe he's just had more third-quarter explosions than fourth-quarter comebacks, after all.)

But the facts are also facts. Just like the GWD records confirm that you'd be wise to trust Russell Wilson or Andrew Luck or even Case Keenum to win a late game more than you'd trust, say, Derek Anderson, they indicate loudly that Nick Foles is one of, if not the guy, you want for a game-winning drive.

Is Foles a system beneficiary or a product of destiny?

As noted upon Foles' return to the lineup this year, St. Nick getting so many starts to begin with stems from a separate phenomenon regarding Eagles backup quarterbacks, who are uniquely popular in Philly not just because of their tough fans:

The Eagles have had a backup quarterback start at least two games in 12 of their last 15 seasons ... Exactly 20 percent -- or one in every five -- of the Eagles' 240 regular-season games from 2004-2018 will have been started by backups ... The top 10 teams in the NFL since 2010 have averaged 22.3 backup QB starts in the last 15 years. The Eagles have that total more than doubled.

But just because the Eagles' unusual penchant for needing backup QBs has given Foles lots of playing time doesn't mean the team was guaranteed lots of clutch performances. Josh McCown, for instance, has started 33 more games than Foles in his career, yet he has three fewer GWDs. The question then becomes whether it's Foles or the Eagles doing most of the "clutch" work.

It's a question that will probably never get a complete answer. But even Jeff Garcia, the only other notable backup success in recent Eagles history, didn't sustain his magic over multiple seasons and circumstances like Foles.

Maybe every one of Foles' coaches, including Doug Pederson, is especially talented at getting the best of his QBs or tailoring his offense to help them. Maybe his teammates have always stepped up their game around them. Maybe, with more starts and seasons, his GWD marks will deteriorate.

The simple fact of the matter, however, is that the Eagles have often come up big -- no, huge -- when he is on the field.

So maybe, just maybe, Nick Foles truly is one of the most clutch quarterbacks in the NFL.

He still may not be full-time starting material. He may never fully be accepted as one of the best. He may not even be as lauded as his fellow quarterback in Philly. But like Wentz, he's also unmistakably humble. And taking a back seat during a career in which he's won it all and then won some more would be just like his journey -- improbable and unbelievable, but victorious.