According to ESPN’s Tim McManus, the Philadelphia Eagles have indeed informed Nick Foles that they will be picking up his $20M option.
Eagles have notified Nick Foles that they will exercise his 2019 option, per source.
— Tim McManus (@Tim_McManus) February 6, 2019
What does this mean for the team? Well, firstly, it’s no longer their move. Nick Foles now has a window where he can opt out of this automatic $20M one-year extension, by paying back his $2M signing bonus. If he does so, Foles will walk into free agency.
After Foles has decided one way or the other, the next step can begin. This will either be trying to find a permanent new home for Nick Foles via trade, or restructuring his deal so that he remains in Philadelphia. What’s worth noting is that if Foles walks, the Eagles do receive a 2020 third-round compensatory pick. So a trade would have to at the very least, provide the Eagles with more value than that. I broke this, and every other possible scenario down in much greater detail here:
The fact that the Eagles are committing to this is indicative of there at least being a market. The Birds aren’t exactly in a position to host a $20M contract and would’ve allowed him to enter free agency if there wasn’t something lurking in the waters. Whether that formulates into anything will remain to be seen, but this is at least a sign that there are teams who are potentially willing to give the Eagles more than the value of that compensatory pick.
That’s the immediate future. If no suitable trade partner can be found, that’s when things are really going to amp up. As of right now, it looks as though the Eagles are going to walk into the offseason with the most glamorous free agent QB on their arm and begin seeing which lovely bachelorette would like to take him to dinner.
Mandatory Photo credit: Bill Streicher – USA Today Sports
