Philadelphia Eagles head coach Chip Kelly wanted Nick Foles to remain on the team in 2015. When the Eagles began trade talks with the St. Louis Rams for quarterback Sam Bradford, the initial plan was to just trade picks, but the Rams wanted players.
Chip Kelly didn’t want to trade Nick Foles in Sam Bradford deal
The Eagles coach wanted both Foles and Bradford on the roster in 2015.
Foles seems to have a high ceiling, with one standout season and one poor season under his belt thus far. Coming off his down season, he may not have beaten Bradford in a hypothetical competition for Philadelphia’s starting job, but he would have been nice insurance in the event of an injury. Bradford, who sat out last season with a torn ACL, has missed 25 of his last 32 games due to injuries. However, the Eagles still gave up multiple draft picks and Foles to acquire him.
Bradford, when healthy, has all the makings of a franchise quarterback and the Eagles would obviously love for him to pan out.
Of course, Bradford is not be the only option at quarterback next season. Philadelphia re-signed Mark Sanchez for two years, and the possibility of drafting Marcus Mariota, who played for Kelly at Oregon, remains. Kelly was asked whether the Eagles will try to trade up to No. 6 to draft him. But Kelly said that the Eagles want to keep all of their draft picks, and that two first-round picks won’t get the Eagles from No. 20 overall to No. 6 overall, according to Eliot Shorr-Parks of NJ.com.
Kelly said that the way he approached the draft was “more players are better than one player,“ reiterating his stance that the Eagles would not ”mortgage the future” for one pick.
For now, it seems like Bradford is in the plan going forward, even if Kelly hasn’t yet referred to him as the Eagles’ franchise quarterback.
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