NFL Trade Rumors: Eagles have received at least one ‘respectable’ offer for Nick Foles

Longtime NFL reporter Peter King dropped an update about the Philadelphia Eagles quarterback situation in his weekly Monday column for The MMQB.

The Eagles continue to be confident that Carson Wentz will be healthy enough after Dec. 13 knee surgery to play the Sept. 6 NFL opener, and have had at least one respectable (the word I hear to describe it) trade offer for Super Bowl MVP Nick Foles … The Eagles got first- and fourth-round picks for Sam Bradford 17 months ago and feel Foles is better, so it’ll likely take at least that to pique their interest, and that’s likely not happening.

A couple things to unpack here.

First, it’s encouraging to hear the Eagles feel like Wentz will be ready to start in Week 1. This sentiment matches previous reports that have indicated it’s ‘realistic’ to think Wentz can be ready for the 2018 regular season opener. September is still six months away, so nothing is written in stone just yet. But there has been no report that indicates Wentz will not be ready.

If the Eagles truly feel like Wentz will be ready, that should certainly make it easier for them to part with Foles. It’s interesting to hear the team has already received at least one ‘respectable’ offer for this year’s Super Bowl MVP.

Of course, it must not be respectable enough for the Eagles to pull the trigger, or we would’ve heard about a deal by now. While trades can’t officially be executed until the new league year begins next week on Wednesday, March 14, we’ve already seen some NFL trades leaked out in the media (Alex Smith, Marcus Peters, Robert Quinn, etc.)

Foles trade debate has raged on basically ever since the Super Bowl ended a month ago. Some believe the Eagles can’t possibly trade him since he’s a great insurance policy for Wentz. It’s true that keeping Foles around is the ideal. But it’s not that simple. The Eagles are in need of cap space and draft picks more than ever. Trading Foles saves $5.2 million and potentially gives the Eagles more draft capital.

Another thing to factor in to the equation is the presence of Nate Sudfeld. The Eagles really seem to genuinely like him. Eagles executive vice president of football operations Howie Roseman said the team views Sudfeld as a future starter in the NFL. Doug Pederson said he’s looking forward to Sudfeld having a full offseason with the team. The Eagles trusted Sudfeld enough to be their backup when Wentz went down in 2017. He’ll be Philadelphia’s primary backup again if/when Foles is traded.

King says he thinks it’ll take what the Eagles got for Sam Bradford to move Foles. It’s tough to use that trade as a baseline, though, because that was a special circumstance with Teddy Bridgewater going down with a season-ending injury eight days before Week 1. Maybe the Eagles could find themselves in a similar situation by holding on to Foles and waiting for something to happen. The problem with that is the situation may not arise.

And that wouldn’t be the worst thing, because then the Eagles could just keep Foles around as a backup. It would be frustrating for the Eagles to get nothing in exchange for Foles, though, and then have him walk as a free agent after the 2018 season.

There is absolutely a world where Wentz doesn’t miss any playing time this year and Foles isn’t needed. It would be disappointing to receive nothing of value in return for him, except maybe a compensatory pick in the 2020 NFL Draft.

We’ll see what happens. For now, we know at least one team out there is interested in trading for Foles. If more teams get in on the action, there will be a stronger market for his services, and that will drive up the price. Maybe to the point where the Eagles decide to accept the offer.

The feeling here is that Foles will eventually get dealt. I don’t know when, and I don’t know for how much, but that’s the sense I get.

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