In the aftermath of Nick Foles' stunning performances in the NFC Championship Game and the Super Bowl, for which he was named Super Bowl MVP, many assumed that the Eagles would trade their backup quarterback while his stock was at its highest. But after the first few waves of free agency and a whole host of flashy trades filled up the few starting quarterback jobs that were open around the league, Foles remains on the Eagles' roster.
On Saturday, Eagles coach Doug Pederson explained to NFL Network's Steve Wyche at the NFL Annual Meeting in Orlando why they're hanging onto Foles. It turns out, it's rather simple. They just never got a crazy offer.
"We did not," Pederson said when asked if they got any interesting offers, via NFL.com. "Nothing too crazy. It had to be the right deal for us to do that. But there wasn't anything coming down our way for Nick."
And so, that means Foles will likely return to the Eagles as their backup quarterback and mentor to Carson Wentz, who was in the midst of an MVP season before tearing his ACL in December.
"He's totally fine being that mentor, sort of in that backup role, helping Carson along the way," Pederson said. "That's who Nick is. That's who he is. And when called upon, he's going to perform, but he understands this is Carson's team and he's going to support him every way he can."
None of this should come as a surprise, namely because as soon as Foles helped the Eagles best the Patriots in the Super Bowl, the Eagles' asking price for Foles got way too high. In mid-February, Peter King of TheMMQB.com said that he believed it would require two first-round picks to even have a discussion about acquiring Foles. A month later, Mike Garafolo and Ian Rapoport of NFL Network said that any offer would have to start with a first-round pick because the Eagles don't want to trade Foles.
The Eagles shouldn't want to trade Foles after Wentz tore his ACL in December, which means there's a chance he won't be ready in time for Week 1, in which case they'll feel completely confident and secure with Foles under center. Meanwhile, quarterback-needy teams shouldn't want to give up a first-round pick for Foles because there's a very good chance that Foles' incredible success at the end of the season was largely the result of the coaching staff and talent-level of his supporting cast.
That doesn't mean the Foles sweepstakes is necessarily over. If some team is desperate enough to offer a first-round pick for Foles in the aftermath of a devastating training camp injury -- like what happened to the Dolphins last August -- the Eagles might take it. If the Eagles have a better understanding of Wentz's recovery timeline in the summer and feel like he's a lock for Week 1, and someone makes an offer, perhaps they'll settle for less and take the offer.
Before the craziness of free agency, we ranked nine potential landing spots for Foles:
Since then, the Saints re-signed Drew Brees, the Jaguars extended Blake Bortles, the Browns traded for Tyrod Taylor, the Vikings landed Kirk Cousins, the Bills signed AJ McCarron, the Broncos scooped up Case Keenum, the Jets signed Josh McCown and Teddy Bridgewater and traded up to presumably draft their franchise quarterback, and the Cardinals signed Sam Bradford. So, the Eagles should still be considered the favorites.
