Foles skips start of OTAs

Nick Foles is reportedly skipping Rams OTAs out of protest

Former starting QB is apparently taking a page out of the Sam Bradford playbook

By Will Brinson

http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/nick-foles-is-reportedly-skipping-rams-otas-out-of-protest/

Nothing is easy for the Los Angeles Rams at the quarterback position, which has been a revolving door of passers under Jeff Fisher. That’s why the franchise traded up to take Jared Goff with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2016 NFL Draft.

Goff is the starter because you don’t trade tons of picks to draft a guy you’re not playing in a season where you need to win more than eight games and make a playoff run. Everyone knows this, including Nick Foles, who is planning to skip OTAs as a sign of protest, according to Jim Trotter of ESPN.

While not technically a holdout, this is about as much of a holdout as someone who is currently slated to be a backup can pull off. Foles can skip the voluntary workouts and not be fined after all.

And it’s not hard to blame Foles for being miffed. He was traded by the Eagles to the Rams in exchange for Sam Bradford (the rare “lose-lose-lose-lose” trade) last offseason.

Foles inked a two-year, $24.5 million contract with the Rams that featured a pretty stout amount of guaranteed money ($13.8 million).

Like Bradford, he couldn’t have expected he would be the long-term solution for his team, but he probably expected to start/play prominently for multiple years.

Instead Foles was benched in his first season with the Rams and promptly shoved down the depth chart with the drafting of Goff.
At this point he might be behind Case Keenum on the depth chart, although it’s all irrelevant with Goff expected to start the entire season barring injury or a really bad performance.

Which is why Foles holding out and/or skipping workouts is the ultimate exercise in futility.

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Nick Foles doesn’t appear for ‘voluntary’ training in Oxnard

By Vincent Bonsignore,

http://www.dailynews.com/sports/20160601/rams-qb-nick-foles-doesnt-appear-for-voluntary-training-in-oxnard

OXNARD — The Rams opened the first of their six voluntary organized training activities (OTAs) on Tuesday with one notable, albeit expected, absence.

Quarterback Nick Foles, who lost his job last season to Case Keenum and whose job status grew even more tenuous with the addition of Jared Goff, the first pick overall in April’s draft, was a no-show.

While Foles and his camp haven’t publicly demanded a trade or to be released, their end game is fairly transparent. With the Rams giving Goff every chance to be their opening-day starter and Keenum someone they continually touted as their starter heading into training camp, Foles’ best bet for the future is seemingly with another team.

And with OTAs technically a voluntary part of offseason workouts — meaning he can’t be fined for being absent — it seems highly unlikely Foles will join the Rams over the next two weeks.

According to sources close to the situation, relations between the Rams and Foles appear amicable and respectful. The Rams had discussions during the draft about potentially trading Foles, who earned a $6 million roster bonus in March and whose $1.75 salary for 2016 is fully guaranteed, but a deal was never consummated.

But with quarterback situations always evolving around the NFL, the possibility of moving Foles at some point remains in play. And with three other quarterbacks currently on the roster — Goff, Keenum and second-year prospect Sean Mannion — the Rams could end up releasing Foles outright.

The Rams acquired Foles last offseason in the blockbuster Sam Bradford trade with the Philadelphia Eagles and then rewarded him with a two-year, $24,540,000 contract extension with $13,792,000 guaranteed.

But he was largely ineffective over the first 12 weeks of the season and was ultimately replaced by Keenum in week 12.

For now, he remains property of the Rams. But from a distance.

Nick Foles has not shown up since Rams drafted Jared Goff

Eric Edholm

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-shutdown-corner/nick-foles-has-not-shown-up-since-rams-drafted-jared-goff-163200793.html

It has slipped through the cracks a bit with other, more high-profile quarterback standoffs happening around the league, but as ESPN.com pointed out Nick Foles has not shown up at the Los Angeles Rams facility since Jared Goff was the franchise’s No. 1 overall selection in the draft.

And, yes, to spare us all the sarcasm, he is aware that the team moved this offseason. Foles actually was a regular, according to the report, at the team’s offseason activities, which began on April 18. But since April 30, the day the Rams picked Goff first, Foles has stayed away.

Foles, of course, has every right to do so. To date, all the activities have been voluntary, although with the start of OTAs arriving, that all changes as these sessions are required to attend. It certainly underscores his position on the team, which is tenuous at best.

When the Rams first made the move from St. Louis to L.A., it was Case Keenum, and not Foles, who was pegged as the starter at the time by head coach Jeff Fisher. Keenum replaced Foles, who made nine starts last season after being acquired in a swap for Sam Bradford and draft picks.

Now it appears Bradford is uncomfortable in Philadelphia and Foles hasn’t exactly embraced L.A. But it has less to do with the environment and more to do with Goff, for whom the Rams traded up (using one of the picks in the Foles trade to do so).

Would anyone trade for Foles? He was paid a roster bonus of $6 million already this year, but his base salary of $1.75 million makes it possible. It all depends on what other teams think about Foles and their own quarterbacks. We apparently know what the Rams think of Foles and what he thinks of them currently.

Jack Wang ‎@thejackwang
Jeff Fisher, on Nick Foles’ absence from Rams OTAs: “We’re on the same page. We’re trying to work things out.”

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Source: #Rams would be "totally comfortable" eating Foles' contract and cutting him, should it be necessary.

— Benjamin Allbright (@AllbrightNFL) June 1, 2016

Nick Foles apparently no longer part of Rams’ QB picture

By RICH HAMMOND / STAFF WRITER

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/fisher-717864-foles-rams.html

OXNARD – Jared Goff is enthused. Case Keenum is motivated. Nick Foles is somewhere else, apparently having decided to remove himself from the Rams’ quarterback competition before its start.

Foles, the Rams’ starter for 11 of 16 games last season, has chosen not to participate in any of the Rams’ offseason activities – including full-team OTA practices that started this week – since late April, when the Rams selected Goff with the No. 1 overall draft pick.

The practices are voluntary, but almost all of the 90 players on the Rams’ roster have checked in.

While Fisher didn’t directly say that the Rams intend to trade or release Foles, the implication seemed clear. When Fisher spoke about Foles, as he did after Wednesday’s practice, he did so in the past tense.

“I’ve had conversations with Nick and we’re on the same page and we’re trying to work things out,” Fisher said. “We’re in the process of sorting things out with Nick. It has nothing to do with him not wanting to come in and compete, at all. He’s very, very competitive. We appreciate everything he did for us and his leadership. His teammates miss him.”

David Dunn, Foles’ agent, did not respond to a message seeking comment.

It’s been a steep fall for Foles, who the Rams acquired from Philadelphia last year and installed as their starter. Foles completed 56.4 percent of his passes and threw seven touchdowns and 10 interceptions before he was replaced as starter by Keenum, a former practice-squad quarterback.

Keenum played well late in the season and was declared by Fisher to be the Rams’ starter going into the offseason, and then the team drafted Goff.

The Rams have made it relatively clear that the future belongs to Goff, and that if the rookie isn’t ready to start the first game of the 2016 season, Keenum would have the edge over Foles. That’s why there’s no apparent acrimony, on Fisher’s behalf, regarding Foles’ absence.

“I think Nick has the feeling that if things stay the same, he’s probably not going to be on the roster,” Fisher said. “Beyond that, it was more of a mutual thing. Not that we said, ‘Don’t come.’ It was just, ‘Coach, I would just rather stay away until we get things worked out.’ I said, ‘I’m fine with that.’”

Goff actually handled third-team duties in Wednesday’s practice, as Keenum took first-team reps and second-year quarterback Sean Mannion worked with the second team.

That’s part of Fisher’s plan to bring along Goff slowly. The coach said he expected that, by the end of OTA practices on June 16, Goff would be getting some first-team reps.

Goff’s progress has been slow and steady. Fisher attributed two of Goff’s errors Wednesday – a fumble and an interception – to a lack of familiarity with teammates and NFL drills, and Fisher said Goff “is way ahead of where he was, even a week ago.”

“It’s my second OTA of my rookie year,” Goff said. “Mistakes aren’t the worst thing in the world. I’m learning from all the stuff. … It’s been a really good transition and I’m learning every day.”

It’s different for Keenum, who would seem to be in an awkward position. While Keenum technically remains atop the quarterback depth chart, the presumption is that he’s merely holding the spot until Goff is ready.

Keenum faced more questions Wednesday about Goff and Foles than himself, but displayed good nature when he joked about working with the “kids,” Goff (age 21) and Mannion (23). Keenum is 27.

“My mindset is about getting ready to beat the 49ers on ‘Monday Night Football,’” Keenum said of the Sept. 12 season opener. “Every time I come onto the field, that’s what I’m looking forward to in the back of my mind.”

Multiple ways to get there, but one logical end for Nick Foles, Rams

Nick Wagoner

http://espn.go.com/blog/st-louis-rams/post/_/id/29599/multiple-ways-to-get-there-but-one-logical-end-to-nick-foles-time-with-rams

OXNARD, Calif. — The news that quarterback Nick Foles is not attending the Los Angeles Rams’ organized team activities and hasn’t been around since the team drafted quarterback Jared Goff at No. 1 overall didn’t come as much of a surprise. For Foles and the Rams, the writing has been on the wall for much longer.

For now, the Rams and Foles are fine with the arrangement they have in place in which Foles stays home and the team moves through the rest of its offseason program with the trio of Goff, Case Keenum and Sean Mannion at quarterback.

Rams coach Jeff Fisher made that clear when discussing the situation on Wednesday.

“I’ve had conversations with Nick and we’re on the same page and we’re trying to work things out,” Fisher said. “That’s pretty much all I can say. These are voluntary. We have three quarterbacks on the field right now and it’s hard enough to get reps for all three of them, so we’re in the process of sorting things out with Nick. It has nothing to do with him not wanting to come in and compete, at all. He’s very, very competitive. We appreciate everything he did for us and his leadership and his teammates miss him, but I don’t have any more information other than we are just trying to work things out.”

Working things out with Foles could travel a couple of different paths.

The one the Rams would prefer is trading him. They attempted to do so most of the offseason, especially around the draft, but couldn’t find a taker as a whopping 15 quarterbacks were selected. With that many quarterbacks off the board, the number of teams looking for help at the position dwindled and those willing to give up a pick were nonexistent.

The other remaining option is cutting Foles, something that the Rams are prepared to do if a market for Foles doesn’t develop. The Rams have already paid Foles’ $6 million roster bonus, leaving just a base salary of $1.75 million that the team would save by an outright release.

But at this time of year, the Rams don’t yet see the need to just part ways with Foles. While injuries are bound to happen across the league that could create a trade fit for Foles, the same is true of the Rams right now. So if the Rams had an injury, Foles still offers some insurance and because they’ve already paid that bonus, cutting him right now wouldn’t do them any good from a financial standpoint.

Barring any of those unfortunate injury instances, though, the reality remains that Foles is still unlikely to be a Ram in 2016. Fisher even acknowledged that Foles views it that way in a recent conversation.

“We talked again and I think Nick has the feeling that if things stay the same, he’s probably not going to be on the roster,” Fisher said. “But beyond that, it was more of a mutual thing. Not that we said don’t come, it was just, ‘Hey coach, I’d just rather stay away until we get things worked out.’ I said I’m fine with that.”

In the meantime, the Rams will continue to ramp up the reps for Goff and get Keenum and Mannion plenty of work as well. And while other, more high-profile quarterback absences (looking at you, Philadelphia and the Jets) have or continue to create distractions, the Rams clearly don’t view Foles’ situation in the same way.

“We’d definitely love to have Nick out here, but he made a decision,” running back Todd Gurley said. “Hopefully he’ll be back sometime soon. I gave him a text a couple of weeks ago just to check up on him. Hopefully he’ll be back. I still love Nick.”[