Having Nick Foles in the AFC South wasn’t an ideal situation for the Colts.

The entire AFC South no longer reaps the benefits of playing a Blake Bortles-led Jacksonville Jaguars. For the last few years, playing the Jaguars twice a year wasn’t so bad. Although they had a surprisingly good season in 2017, everything before that and beyond was nothing to be impressed with.

Jacksonville’s defense is good – but this is an offensive league nowadays. Sure, there’s the occasional low-scoring defensive battle ignited. But for the most part, a good offense trumps all in the NFL. With Bortles under center, nobody really had to worry about the Jaguars. With Nick Foles there though, the situation is a tad bit different.

Now, let’s not get it twisted. It’s not like Aaron Rodgers joined the AFC South. Foles is a solid quarterback, but he’s far from proven as a franchise leader. However, since there’s familiarity with Foles over in Indianapolis (Frank Reich), the Colts are well-aware of Foles’ ability to turn things up on offense. Therefore, they are not going to take the Jags lightly this season. The Colts’ front office definitely wishes that Foles wasn’t around over there in Jacksonville for the 2019 NFL Season.

Chris Ballard wishes Foles was still in Philly

In a sit-down with @PFT_Live, Colts G.M. Chris Ballard on Nick Foles signing with the Jaguars: "Would we prefer that he still be playing for the Eagles? Absolutely we would."

— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) March 25, 2019

Is Colts’ General Manager Chris Ballard shaking in his boots because Nick Foles is around? Probably not. After all, the Colts are a playoff caliber team themselves. But he has made it quite clear that he wishes Foles stayed with the Philadelphia Eagles instead of joining the Jags.

At 29-years-old, Foles will get another opportunity to take over an offense as the franchise quarterback. Although his first two stints were failures, he could use the Chip Kelly, and Jeff Fisher card to excuse his past flaws. But just because he has a Super Bowl MVP accolade doesn’t mean that he’s going to put up perfect passer numbers every week. Foles is beatable, but the Colts are definitely going to have stiffer competition when it comes to the Jaguars now with Bortles out of the picture. That’s for sure.