Philadelphia Eagles coach Doug Pederson won a Super Bowl ring following the 1996 season while backing up Brett Favre with the Green Bay Packers. Frank Reich, the Eagles' offensive coordinator, was Jim Kelly's understudy for each of the Buffalo Bills' four Super Bowl trips, helping engineer the third one with the greatest comeback in NFL playoff history.
The two men, in other words, know what they're looking for in a capable backup quarterback. And as the Eagles sorted out a thorny situation behind Carson Wentz last spring, they knew they wanted to end up with Nick Foles.
The Eagles signed Foles to a two-year contract March 13, knowing that meant they could part with Chase Daniel a year after giving him a three-year, $21 million deal. When Daniel requested — and was granted — his release the same day, it meant the Eagles would have to absorb a $7 million cap hit.
"We knew what kind of person [Foles] was. We drafted him," Eagles General Manager Howie Roseman said. "We made him our starter and then when we had an opportunity to bring him back, I think for Coach [Pederson] and for our front office, the question was really to go to [owner] Jeffery [Lurie], because of the amount of money he had to eat on our quarterback position. But to his credit, he was totally on board. It's all about winning to Jeffery.''
The Eagles had traded Foles to St. Louis for Sam Bradford in 2015. But had they not made the move to bring Foles back two years later, the Eagles might not be in Minneapolis for Super Bowl LII this week.
Foles' bravura performance in the NFC Championship Game found the quarterback in full control of the Eagles' offense against the Vikings, after a five-game stretch that had turned the NFC's top seed into a fashionable pick for an early playoff exit. The doubt that made the Eagles underdogs in two home playoff games was trained on Foles, but he erased it just in time for a 352-yard performance that has Philadelphia in the Super Bowl for the first time since the 2004 season.
When a torn ACL ended Wentz's MVP-caliber season on Dec. 10 in Los Angeles, the Eagles' fortunes were hoisted onto Foles' shoulders. Even though the Eagles hung on for a 43-35 win over the Rams that day, it appeared those shoulders might not be able to carry Philadelphia's Super Bowl hopes.
"The city had embraced Carson like few others," Reich said. "And then bam — it's gone. It's like for a week or two, the city just lost its breath."
