No one foresaw an NFC title matchup between Vikings' Keenum and Eagles' Foles

Before they moved back to Los Angeles prior to the 2016 season, the St. Louis Rams finished 7-9 and fourth in the NFC West with Nick Foles and Case Keenum taking turns as their top quarterback. A series of fortunate and, for some, unfortunate events brings them together for a 5:40 p.m. kickoff Sunday, Jan. 21, at Lincoln Financial Field.

"Good job to all you of guys who made that prediction," said Keenum, who will be making his 16th start for the Vikings.

Forget predicting this turn of events; simply connecting the dots on how the former teammates came to be playing for a chance to advance to the Super Bowl is difficult. Each started the season as Plan B, yet one will be the NFC's starting quarterback in Super Bowl LII at U.S. Bank Stadium on Feb. 4.

And we haven't even mentioned Sam Bradford, whose own peripatetic career is somehow at the center of Sunday's quarterback matchup. When it was suggested there might be people working on flow charts to explain the equation, Keenum said, "I wasn't aware of a flow chart."

OK, we aren't either, so let's try this:

• In March 2015, the Eagles traded Foles and a couple of draft picks to St. Louis to acquire Bradford.

• Foles started 11 games for the Rams before losing his job to Keenum, acquired from Houston for a seventh-round pick before the season.

• In August 2016, the Vikings sent first- and fourth-round picks to Philadelphia for Bradford after quarterback Teddy Bridgewater blew out his left knee in practice. Bradford was available because the Eagles were high on the quarterback they had just drafted, Carson Wentz.

• Last March, the Vikings signed Keenum to back up Bradford, and the Eagles reacquired Foles, who had moved on to Kansas City, to back up Wentz.

• On Sept. 11, Bradford reinjured his troublesome left knee, quickly making Keenum the Vikings' starter.

• On Dec. 10, Wentz blew out his left knee, quickly making Foles the Eagles' starter.

That's a pretty tangled trajectory, even in the comparatively small pond of the NFL, one that becomes even more remarkable when one considers that Bradford was activated from injured reserve this month to be Keenum's backup during the postseason, and that Foles and Keenum have remained close since meeting in St. Louis.

"Nick is a great guy. One of my best friends," Keenum said. "A really, really solid guy. Great faith, great family. My wife and his wife are great friends."

Their numbers are similar, too. Foles has made 39 regular-season starts, going 22-17; Keenum has made 38 regular-season starts and is 20-18. Foles is 1-1 in two playoff starts, Keenum 1-0 after Sunday's 29-24 victory over New Orleans, won on his 61-yard connection with Stefon Diggs as time expired.

The primary difference is how much each has played this season. The Vikings are in the NFC title game in large part because of Keenum, 12-3 as the starter this season. He has passed for 3,865 yards and 23 touchdowns against eight interceptions and finished the regular season with a 98.3 passer rating.

The Eagles were the top seed in the NFC largely because of Wentz, who was an MVP candidate before tearing the ACL in his left knee in a 43-35 victory over the Rams in Week 14. Before that, the second-year QB out of North Dakota State had passed for 3,296 yards and 33 touchdowns and just seven interceptions in 13 games.

Since then, Foles has thrown for 783 yards and five touchdowns against two interceptions in four starts. He missed most of training camp with soreness in his right elbow. Asked how much he changed the offense since Wentz's injury, Eagles coach Doug Pederson said Wednesday, "We tweaked it a little."

"We sort of simplified some of the motions and shifts, stuff like that," he said. "We still run the same plays, but we wanted to get back to some of the things that Nick is comfortable with. He's only been in there a month; it's a little bit harder to get him, I guess, ready."

Foles is no cipher. He's 0-2 in two career games against Minnesota — a 48-30 loss with Philadelphia in 2013, a 21-18 loss with St. Louis in 2015 — but was selected for the Pro Bowl in 2013 after going 8-2 as a starter and finishing with a league-best quarterback rating of 119.2.

He passed for 2,891 yards and 27 touchdowns and just two interceptions that year, when Pederson was the offensive coordinator.

"We're only a few weeks into the Nick Foles era, so to speak," Pederson said Wednesday. "He missed training camp and working with the guys. It just takes time. We eliminated some of the extra things and just said, 'Hey, let's go play.' "