The Philadelphia Eagles wanted a treasure chest if they were going to be tempted to trade away backup quarterback Nick Foles this offseason. Turns out, they didn’t get an offer that even piqued their interest, let alone the first-round pick “at the very least” that they were seeking.
In speaking with NFL Network’s Steve Wyche at the NFL Annual Meeting in Orlando on Saturday, Eagles coach Doug Pederson admitted nothing came his way with regard to a deal for the Super Bowl LII MVP.
“We did not,” Pederson said when asked if the team got any interesting trade offers for Foles. “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.”
The plush free-agent quarterback market clearly hurt the Eagles‘ leverage in the situation, but Pederson spoke like a man Saturday who didn’t want to do a deal regardless.
While the coach is confident Carson Wentz can return to MVP candidate form (“He’s doing really well. He’s ahead of schedule,” Pederson said of the QB’s recovery from knee surgery), the insurance Foles provides the team certainly sounds of greater value to the Eagles than the one or two premium draft picks they would have received to trade him.
“He’s totally fine being that mentor, sort of in that backup role, helping Carson along the way,” Pederson said of Foles. “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.”