February was a long, long time ago.
A Super Bowl MVP award made quarterback Nick Foles the flavor of the month, a guy who surely would have attracted a significant payday on the open market. But he wasn’t on the open market, tied instead to the second-year of a two-year deal to serve as the No. 2 quarterback in Philly.
More than 10 months later, Foles had been largely forgotten. His two starts to open the season (a win over the Falcons and a loss at Tampa) generated lackluster stats, giving him far-from-franchise-quarterback numbers of 5.5 yards per attempt, one touchdown pass, two turnovers, and an anemic passer rating of 78.9.
Now, with starter Carson Wentz reportedly expected to miss Sunday night’s game against the Rams, Foles may get a second chance to make a final impression for any and all teams that will be looking for a quarterback in 2019.
Whatever he does, anything less than sparking an unlikely late-season playoff run will mean that Foles will have far less value than he would have had if he’d hit the market in 2018. The only good news is that, for 2019, the free-agent options will be more limited. Which could push Foles’ potential value a little higher.
Still, the real question is whether anyone will regard him as a starter. It’s possible that his playoff run was a right-place-right-time fluke, the football equivalent of Slumdog Millionaire.
While still a millionaire, how many more millions Foles will receive in 2019 could depend on what he does, if he indeed ends up player for Foles.
