speculations about Rams interest in Foles

Tipsheet: Foles could provide QB solution for Rams

By Jeff Gordon

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/columns/jeff-gordon/tipsheet-foles-could-provide-qb-solution-for-rams/article_80339bc3-5258-572b-ae2e-c94ac48f5c32.html

Philadelphia Eagles coach Chip Kelly is trying to run the Oregon offense in the NFL. He loves Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota.

Since Mariota is expected to go near the top of the draft and the Eagles don’t pick until No. 20 in the first round, putting together a trade package for the Heisman Trophy winner won’t be easy.

That is where the Rams could come in. Should the Eagles opt to move quarterback Nick Foles to clear space for Mariota, the Rams would likely make a bid.

And the Rams have the 10th overall draft pick. If the Rams are willing to spend it to get a proven alternative at quarterback, the Eagles could throw that pick in the trade package for a top pick to land Mariota.

Foles, who is 6-foot-6 and 243 pounds, is immobile — like the star-crossed Sam Bradford. But Foles has fully operational legs. He has completed 61.6 percent of his career passes and thrown 46 touchdown passes against just 17 interceptions.

But he took a step back last season. Foles played just eight games last season before suffering a fractured collarbone. He threw 13 TD passes in those games but also 10 interceptions — a far cry from his stunning 27-2 TDs-to-INTs ratio the season before.

Foles, 26, will be entering the “walk” year of his contract, so he will be heavily motivated to get back on track.

The Rams wouldn’t be the only team bidding for Foles, should he hit the market as some expect, so we could have a bit of intrigue as the NFL season nears.

JT speculates about this in his chat–what would the Rams give for Foles?

http://theramshuddle.com/topic/jt-chat-127/

Foles doesn’t do a whole lot for me. Keep in mind, the trading period doesn’t start until March 10. So I wouldn’t read too much into this rumor. But rest assured, it won’t be the last. I’m thinking maybe a third-rounder for Foles.
by jthomas 4:33 PM

I wouldn’t read much into trade rumors in January. But I’ll be a week’s pay right now. There’s no way the Rams are trading a No. 10 overall for Nick Foles.
by jthomas 4:40 PM

The Eagles don’t really have a replacement for Foles as we speak. So I wouldn’t sweat this much at this point.
by jthomas 5:06 PM

I’m not convinced there is anything to the Foles speculation.
by jthomas 5:32 PM

—

And…here’s an article about that that:

What is Nick Foles’ trade value?

http://www.csnphilly.com/blog/700-level/what-nick-foles%E2%80%99-trade-value?p=ya5nbcs&ocid=yahoo

According to a report, as many as three teams would have interest in acquiring Nick Foles were the Philadelphia Eagles to make the passer available for trade. Of the potential suitors, the St. Louis Rams were singled out as a possible destination.

Naturally, the fact that Foles could be coveted by another team will only further fuel speculation that he could be an important bargaining chip in a move up the draft board, specifically in an attempt to obtain Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota. We’ve highlighted again and again the absurdity behind this thinking, barring Mariota falling out of the top few picks, although the recent report does raise an interesting hypothetical question.

What might Foles fetch in a trade?

No doubt, those who take such rumors seriously have their eyes on the Rams’ first-round pick, No. 10 overall. It’s attractive to the Mariota crowd as a potential launching point to No. 1 or No. 2, where the Heisman Trophy winner is most often expected to go.

However, Foles alone wouldn’t warrant the Rams giving up such a high selection. Perhaps if the Eagles also surrendered their first—No. 20—you might have something that begins to warrant consideration. That probably depends on just how much the Rams like Foles.

Let’s take the whole Mariota thing out of the equation for a moment. What would Foles be worth in a more typical situation?

Relatively often, what you see as a return in a lot of high-profile quarterback trades is a package headlined by a second-round pick. It’s what the Eagles got for Kevin Kolb in 2010, along with cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie. It’s what the San Francisco 49ers got for Alex Smith in 2013, along with a conditional pick that turned out to be another second.

There are examples of first-round picks being exchanged for players such as Carson Palmer and Jay Cutler in recent years, but those signal-callers had more defined bodies of work.

The notion that Foles, right now, would warrant a 2015 first-round pick on his own—particularly toward the top of the draft—seems highly unlikely. A second this year and a conditional next seems like it would be a fairly standard offer in this situation.

Of course, this really would be all about Mariota, otherwise why would the Eagles trade Foles? Who else would be under center in 2015?

Which takes us back to the potential deal with the Rams where the Eagles would flip-flop first-round picks in exchange for Foles. Using the draft trade chart provided by ProFootballTalk, and allegedly used in front offices around the NFL, the difference between picks No. 10 and 20 is a value of approximately 450 “points”—or essentially the 45th pick in the draft. That’s a second-rounder.

So, in theory at least, as the crux of a trade, beside any throw-ins and sweeteners, it’s not that outlandish.

However, what remains is still the issue of how the Eagles would jump from No. 10 to wherever they needed to go to get Mariota, provided he is one of the top prospects in the draft. And if we’re using Washington’s infamous Robert Griffin III gambit as any sort of template, we’re talking no less than three firsts and a second for the right to move up again. At that point, it seems far safer to attempt to build around Foles.

Not only would such a play be extremely risky and possibly set the franchise further back than Mariota alone could correct—he’s not Andrew Luck, folks—the Eagles would essentially need to have that deal in place before trading Foles. Otherwise, they could get stuck at No. 10 and wind up with neither quarterback.

With that in mind, perhaps the likeliest scenario for a Foles trade would be Mariota makes it to the Rams’ pick at No. 10, and then the phone rings. Not gonna lie, it’s an intriguing thought.

One I wouldn’t take too seriously just yet.

The Tennessee Titans and Houston Texans were also said to have interest in Foles, but it doesn’t appear either club is positioned as well as the Rams to help the Eagles move. The Titans own the No. 2 pick, which could be where Mariota goes if the Tampa Bay Buccaneers prefer Jameis Winston first overall, only Foles would be a very small part of any deal that went down there.

It seems the Rams may be uniquely situated to help the Eagles in their supposed quest for Mariota if the interest is legitimate. However, a lot of other things would have to fall into place before any of this could even come close to becoming reality.

Thomas Says Rams’ Reported Interest for Foles ‘B.S.’

Brendan Marks

http://www.insidestl.com/insideSTLcom/STLSports/STLRams/tabid/137/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/16312/Thomas-Says-Rams-Reported-Interest-for-Foles-BS.aspx

Reports emerged earlier this week that the St. Louis Rams would have interest in Nick Foles if the Philadelphia Eagles decided to trade him during the offseason.

Jim Thomas of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, however, is calling the reports B.S., literally.

“In talking to some Rams people, the two letter answer I get to that is B-period-S-period,” Thomas told The Ryan Kelley Morning After on Friday. “You really don’t talk about those trades in late January when the beginning of the trade period is March 10. There’s nothing to that right now.”

Thomas said Foles “doesn’t move the needle” a lot in his opinion.

“It would come down what you would want to give up for him. I certaintly wouldn’t give up a first round (pick). I’m not even sure I’d give up a second round,” he said.

The Rams are clearly in need of an upgrade at quarterback. Sam Bradford has torn two ACLs in as many seasons and in 2014 the team bounced between backup quarterbacks Austin Davis and Shaun Hill.

Bradford, 27, has one year and $16.58 million left on his six year, $78 million rookie contract. Barring the unforeseen circumstance that he and agent Tom Condon are unable to reach an agreement with the Rams to restructure his deal, the quarterback will return to the Rams in 2015 to compete for the starting job in his sixth NFL campaign

In his season-ending press conference earlier this month, Jeff Fisher said Bradford would compete for the starting job with ‘someone not in the building.