Eagles were concerned Foles would stay in the NFC East

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One of the reasons the Eagles decided not to franchise Nick Foles and to let him walk in free agency was that they were confident he was going to leave the division.

Eagles owner Jeffrely Lurie said he and General Manager Howie Roseman were initially concerned he might stay in the NFC East with New York or Washington, but eventually they became confident that the Jaguars were going to be the team to sign Foles, and that made them feel better about letting him walk.

“Certainly, Howie and I had long discussions about it,” Lurie said, via NBC Sports Philadelphia. “We thought the sooner we do it, the better because we wanted to give Nick every opportunity to be in the best possible situation and not have a team worry that we were potentially going to keep him and not have the opportunity to start, because there aren’t that many opportunities. We were also, to be honest about it, hoping that he would not end up with the Giants or the Redskins. That was part of it. We were very confident he was going to play for Jacksonville.”

Lurie said Foles, the Super Bowl LII MVP, will be “part of our family forever.” Especially since he won’t play against them twice a year.