What do the Eagles do with Nick Foles now?

When Nick Foles took over for an injured Carson Wentz in early December, few expected that he would go on to lead the Eagles to the franchise’s first Super Bowl win. Even fewer expected he would do it the way he did: with back-to-back virtuosic performances in the NFC Ghampionship Game and the Super Bowl itself. It still feels like a fever dream that the Eagles won a Super Bowl over the Patriots in a historic shootout in which their defense did relatively little.

The perceived value of the average NFL player can dramatically rise and fall on the strength of one standout regular-season game, and that effect is amplified when that singular great performance occurs in the Super Bowl. One need look no further than the likes of Larry Brown and Dexter Jackson, Super Bowl MVPs with otherwise middling careers who reaped the windfall of big outings on the grandest stage. And those were defensive backs. As always with the NFL, reason and nuance go out the window when you’re talking quarterbacks.

The Eagles made Foles the highest-paid backup in the sport when he returned to the team last March. Some snickered at the time, especially given Foles’ mostly mediocre output the preceding three seasons, but it looks like an incredibly savvy investment now. That it was a multiyear deal not only gave the Eagles some security behind their franchise passer for a couple years, but it now means the team has an incredibly valuable bit of trade bait, should it elect to use it.

If Foles was about to become an unrestricted free agent, it’s quite possible that he would instantly become the most prized quarterback on the market, even when Kirk Cousins is available and a remote chance that Drew Brees and Jimmy Garoppolo are as well. Taking in the full breadth of their careers, that seems like lunacy. Cousins has better career numbers and more consistent success while only being about five months older than Foles. Brees is a sure-fire Hall of Famer, but he just turned 39 and is likely to re-sign with the Saints anyway. Garoppolo would be the only potentially available QB who could rival Foles on the market right now, but it’s also a slim chance the Niners let that happen after trading a second-round pick for him months prior.

Sure, Foles only had two great games all year, but they were the two games that every team sets out to win each season. Postseason success goes a long way, and Cousins has exactly none of it.

But Foles isn’t about to be a free agent. In fact, the Eagles have him under contract through the 2018 season. Technically, they have him signed for an additional three years after that, except the language of the deal states those last three seasons are automatically voided if Foles is on the Eagles' roster 23 days into the 2019 league year. So why even have them at all? I don’t know. What do I look like, an agent?

So with some enticing options, what do the Eagles do with Foles now? For better or worse, there’s no easy answer. Unsurprisingly, there are a few hot take artists making the case that it should be Foles who is Philadelphia's default starter going into the 2018 season. If I’m being generous, that’s a purposely provocative but not a wholly unreasonable argument. Wentz will be returning from an ACL injury that typically sets players back for a year after recovery, if not longer. It’s rare that a quarterback is as good the season after suffering a season-ending ACL injury, which is certainly distressing news for fans of both Wentz and Deshaun Watson. Even Tom Brady, who suffered an ACL injury in the first game of the 2008 season, saw his numbers dip a little the following season compared to several before and after recovery.