One of the biggest questions surrounding the Eagles, other than who will replace Jeremy Maclin's production as he reunites with Andy Reid in Kansas City, is who will be the starting quarterback for Chip Kelly's third year as head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles.
There has been much speculation that Kelly will do whatever it takes to reunite with a former player of his own at Oregon, quarterback Marcus Mariota. Doing such would involve parting ways with Nick Foles, who had a historic year in 2013 with 27 touchdowns and just two interceptions over 317 throwing attempts.
A recent report from NJ.com's Eliot Shorr-Parks suggests Kelly is in fact 'gauging interest' on Foles, who missed eight starts in 2014 after suffering a broken collar bone against the Houston Texans in Week 9.
With head coach Chip Kelly, the coaching staff and front office executives in Mobile, Ala. for the Senior Bowl in January, the team made an effort to gauge the value of Foles with other teams in the league.
Shorr-Parks reports that three NFL teams at that time in January were interested in the 88th overall pick from the 2012 NFL Draft out of the University of Arizona. These teams were the St. Louis Rams, Tennessee Titans, and Houston Texans, who own the 10th, 2nd, and 16th picks respectively in the first round of this year's draft on April 30, 2015.
The Rams have been in "quarterback limbo" for a large part of the Sam Bradford era, since being drafted first overall in the 2010 draft. He has missed 31 starts over five seasons thus far in his career, largely due to a torn left ACL which sidelined him starting Week 8 of the 2013 season, all the way through the 2014 season, as it was re-torn in preseason action on August 23, 2014.
If Foles were to be traded to Tennessee, he would be replacing Zach Mettenberger, 23, who was selected in the sixth round of last year's draft out of LSU. In six starts last season, Mettenberger failed to win a game, throwing eight touchdowns and seven interceptions with a 59.8% completion percentage.
Foles, a native of Austin, Texas, likely would not mind being traded to the third team who showed interest in him at the Senior Bowl, the Houston Texans. Trading away longtime quarterback Matt Schaub last offseason, the Texans under former PSU head coach Bill O'Brien went with nine-year veteran Ryan Fitzpatrick as his replacement. Along with Fitzpatrick, who started 12 games in 2014 and was later sidelined due to tearing his pectoral muscle, quarterbacks Ryan Mallet and Case Keenum additionally started in two games each for the Texans.
Clearly, trading just Foles would not be nearly enough to move to the top of this year's draft. Doing such would require trading away multiple, additional picks, including their 20th pick overall in the first round.
Trading away future draft picks could prove to be risky, and ultimately detrimental to the franchise that has not hoisted the Vince Lombardi Trophy yet in Super Bowl history.
Whether or not Kelly and the Eagles find it more beneficial to fill their holes through free agency, rather than by developing talent out of the draft, remains to be seen.
Matt Rappa (@mattrappa) is a contributor to Eagledelphia.com.
