Nick Foles responds to trade rumors about the Browns’ interest in him

One week ago, Mike Silver reported the Philadelphia Eagles turned down the Cleveland Browns’ offer of the No. 35 overall pick in 2018 NFL Draft in exchange for Nick Foles.

Silver also said that “the Eagles ran the scenario by Foles, who said he preferred to remain in Philadelphia.”

Some took this to mean that Foles’ input killed the deal. After the Eagles’ OTA practice on Tuesday, the reigning Super Bowl MVP was asked about the report. His response, via Zach Berman:

“I haven’t turned down anything. We haven’t talked about anything. ... At the end of the day, I’m not the GM of the team. I have a great relationship with Howie [Roseman] to where if something did happen, we could have a discussion. But at the end of the day, he gets to decide.”

Mike Garafolo of the NFL Network further elaborated on this situation.

“[Foles] said that the first he heard of it was when he got a text from somebody asking if it was true. And I assume that to mean Mike Silver’s report recently. I do not believe that to be the case because I mentioned it on this show back in April that the Browns were willing to part with a second round pick. I didn’t mention the part about them running it by Foles. That’s what Mike Silver reported recently. If I knew back on April 17th, I am sure that Nick Foles knew back on April 17th, if not well before that, that the Browns were interested, potentially going to part with a second round pick. But that was not going to get it done and I do not believe that it ever got close to the point where the Eagles were going to have a conversation with Foles to say ‘Alright, what do you think? We’d be willing to take this.’ Now, I do believe that if Foles somehow pressured and said ‘OK, get this deal done, I want it done’ that it probably would have gotten done at some point. But he is comfortable here in this backup role versus maybe being a starter if it’s not the right position. Plus the contract was involved. But I do want to make something clear: Mike Silver did not say that this deal died because Nick Foles nixed it. He was just saying that the Eagles had mentioned it to Foles. And Foles didn’t kill the deal, I can tell you that as well. There were just so many moving parts on this one that it was just going to take a lot for it to come together. It never got close. But as Mike Silver and I had mentioned, the Browns would’ve been willing to part with a second round pick. Just never got any traction.

My takeaway here is that the Eagles reportedly turning down the Browns’ offer wasn’t so much about Foles’ desires as much as it was Howie Roseman thinking the value wasn’t good enough.

And I find that pretty believable. Foles even said it; it’s up to the team to decide whether they want to trade him or not. The team may very well “run it by him,” as Silver originally said, but if the Eagles feel like the value is just too good to pass up (such as a first round pick and something else), Foles is probably a goner.

That’s something to keep in mind this summer. It’s not impossible that another team comes calling for Foles. Roseman may have very well held out on the Browns offer with the thought that he could get even more if there’s a repeat of the 2016 Teddy Bridgewater injury that allowed him to extract a first-round pick in exchange for Sam Bradford.

It’s also very possible that situation doesn’t arise and the Eagles will be content with having Foles as Carson Wentz’s backup heading into 2018.

Win-win position.