When Philadelphia Eagles quarterback and MVP candidate Carson Wentz went down with a season-ending knee injury during a Week 11 road win over the Los Angeles Rams, he took with him the Super Bowl hopes of many Eagles fans. While Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie was deeply concerned about the quarterback’s health, he never doubted the abilities of backup signal-caller Nick Foles to keep the team competitive, per Dan Graziano of ESPN.
Obviously, it's a huge game in Los Angeles, Carson played really, really well, Nick [Foles] came in and won the game for us, we had the best record in football, and you think, ‘Oh my gosh, we're not going to be going forward with our great young quarterback,'” Lurie said.
Jeffrey Lurie would also recount what he deemed today as a very great decision on Philadelphia’s part to sign and bring back to the team Nick Foles.
“And we utilized about $12 million to have a second quarterback. And it may have seemed irrational, but I remember the phone call when it was [executive vice president of football operations] Howie [Roseman] and I talking, and we said, ‘We have an opportunity to do this. Do you have any reservations of using this $12 million this way versus other positions?' And we both agreed this was absolutely the right thing to do. We never knew it would come to this, but we knew that Nick could win big games for us.”
Foles has been steady for the Eagles ever since taking over the starting job under center. Thus far in these playoffs, he has passed for 598 yards on 49-of-63 completions with three touchdowns. Moreover, he has yet to throw an interception. Foles played a huge game in the NFC title game in which he racked up 352 passing yards and three touchdowns in a convincing 38-7 win over the Minnesota Vikings.
Foles signed a two-year, $11 million deal with Philadelphia in March of last year, which was panned by some for being quite a lot for a backup, but a win this coming Sunday will leave Lurie and the Eagles with the last laugh.
