For the second year in a row, the Eagles will ask Nick Foles to lead them to the promised land after watching starting signal-caller Carson Wentz succumb to a season-ending injury. Foles will have a tall order, as he goes against the Rams in Los Angeles tonight before returning to Philadelphia to take on the Texans. And the Eagles, at 6-7, probably need to win out just to have a shot at defending their title.
Ian Rapoport of NFL.com used Foles’ return to the starting lineup as an opportunity to take another look at the reworked contract that Foles and the Eagles agreed to back in April. The deal includes a mutual option for 2019 that allows the Eagles to keep Foles for $20MM if they so choose, or Foles could simply pay back the $2MM signing bonus he received as part of the deal to get out of the option. Given that Wentz is expected to fully recover from the fractured vertebra in his back, the Eagles will almost certainly not pick up Foles’ option, which means that he will hit free agency this offseason (after having the opportunity to add to his bank account thanks to the incentives in the contract).
Speaking of Wentz, Rapoport says it will take the third-year pro three months to make that full recovery, but the Eagles remain fully committed to him as their franchise quarterback (video link). The Eagles have yet to place him on IR, but he has been formally ruled out of tonight’s game against Los Angeles, per Adam Schefter of ESPN.com (via Twitter).
Jeff McLane of the Philadelphia Inquirer says that the team’s medical staff, which was facing mounting criticism anyway, will really come under fire now. Although Wentz should be fully healed in plenty of time for the 2019 offseason program, one does wonder when Wentz suffered the back fracture and how the team’s staff tested and treated it. McLane says it seems likely that Wentz sustained the injury back in October, but it remains unclear how much he knew about it. His experience, when coupled with the “inordinate number of irregularities in recurrence, recovery, and diagnosis” of the injuries the Eagles have suffered as a whole this year, make it fair to criticize the club for unloading its top two doctors and its head trainer after winning the Super Bowl.
Should’ve never rushed Wentz. What made the Eagles think Wentz was going to do better in the helm than their Super Bowl winning QB that they had to rush it.
Rushing him back had nothing to do with it. It’s a back injury. The injury you are referring then to rising him back was a knee injury
A few folks think im an idiot but Carson Wentz is not the best QB on the Eagles. Numbers dont lie.
You’re an idiot
On a little phone. Yeah. But I’ll take numbers over your opinion any day of the week
So let me guess. You think the Eagles should trade Wentz and sign Foles to an extension
And if you’re talking numbers, Nick Foles has thrown 1 touchdown pass in 3 games this year….
No offense, just calling you on your “some people think I’m an idiot” comment
Allowing a Super Bowl MVP to reach free agency will go down as the dumbest move of any team over the past 10 years. Their franchise quarterback as they like to call him is injury prone.
Foles has much more bad tape than good. Just because everything broke right for them over 2.5 games last postseason doesn’t mean he’s suddenly a franchise QB. People seem to just brush off the fact that he was awful in philly’s first 2 games this year
You folks are delusional. Imagine thinking Foles is better than Wentz.
I’ll stand corrected until I’m proven wrong but when he plays , they win..
The Rams are beating themselves.
Pretty awful to see Foles walk for nothing when Roseman had offers on the table to get draft picks
Not sure I understand this logic. Right now the Eagles season is on the line…and Foles is playing. Keeping him was an insurance policy that might just pay off. Last year was magical…if somehow they recapture some of that magic now because they didn’t trade Foles for draft picks, it was the right move.
What logic don’t you understand. Capitalize on when an asset’s value is at its highest. Especially when you know you’re not invested in him for the future
Insurance…you pay for insurance and never cash it in when you have no accidents, when you do it pays for itself. Foles is a nice insurance policy.
Part of that was Roseman didn’t want to just ship off the superbowl hero to Cleveland without Foles signing off on it. Foles didn’t want to go, so they nixed that trade. Sometimes doing right by the player can earn you a good rep for future FA and extension candidates
Doing right for the player? That makes no sense. It’s a business. You do right for your franchise, not one player
They did right by the franchise,the player,and the fans,by keeping their insurance policy at the most important position,as defending champions.
I wonder if they’ll let Foles walk after the win tonight.