New York Giants: Nick Foles in 2019?

Nick Foles replacing Eli Manning and starting at quarterback for the New York Giants in 2019 is not all that crazy of a notion.

Ahead of last January’s NFC Championship Game that featured quarterbacks Nick Foles and Case Keenum starting for their respective teams, ESPN Staff Writer Courtney Cronin wrote about how then Minnesota Vikings offensive coordinator and current New York Giants head coach Pat Shurmur helped develop those two signal-callers as an assistant coach with the Vikings and Philadelphia Eagles. Most notably, for the purposes of this piece, Shurmur worked with Foles during the quarterback’s first spell with the Eagles.

A lot happened between 2013, when Foles enjoyed a Pro Bowl season and matched 27 touchdown passes with only two interceptions, and May 2018. Shurmur continued to erase the Cleveland Browns portion of his resume from memories, and he found success as Minnesota offensive coordinator before the New York Giants hired him as head coach in January 2018.

Foles’ career path was more of a roller-coaster journey over the past several years. The Eagles ultimately gave up on him, as did the St. Louis Rams and Kansas City Chiefs, and he returned to Philadelphia to serve as a backup to Carson Wentz. You probably know the rest from there. Wentz suffered a torn ACL late in the 2017 season, Foles played the role of savior and earned Super Bowl LII MVP honors.

With Wentz preparing to return to action at some point this coming fall, the Eagles looked to cash-in big on a trade involving Foles, while at the same time knowing the club could retain his services another year. When no franchise pushed the chips to the middle of the table for the 29-year old, the Eagles responded by reworking his contract. Eliot Shorr-Parks of NJ.com explained the details:

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"Outside of the new money, the Eagles and Foles now have a mutual option for the 2019 season. The Eagles have the option to keep Foles under contract for $20 million in 2019 if they want — but Foles has the ability to buy his way out of the deal by paying back his new $2 million signing bonus he just got."

Connecting the dots and creating the fictional scenario in which Foles replaces Eli Manning and starts at quarterback for the Giants in September 2019 is easier than Odell Beckham Jr. turning a simple slant route into a touchdown. According to Spotrac, the dead cap value attached to Manning’s contract drops from $17.4 million this year to $6.2 million for the 2019 campaign. The Giants freed future funds ahead of the 2018 NFL Draft to pay Beckham, safety Landon Collins and others, but general manager Dave Gettleman will have to anoint Manning’s successor sooner rather than later.

By using the second overall pick on dynamic running back Saquon Barkley, Gettleman and his staff improved an offense meant to win now. They also unintentionally told fans they placed a lower valuation on the available supposed top-tier rookie quarterbacks. Logic suggests Gettleman won’t think much differently of next year’s class, especially if the Giants aren’t picking in the top five in the draft order.

Shurmur and Gettleman didn’t select Davis Webb, the second-year pro and third-round product scheduled to sit behind Manning on the depth chart up through the end of December. Both coach and general manager have said positive things about Webb, but are they willing to risk their jobs by giving the 23-year old the keys to the offense starting next spring? Kyle Lauletta, drafted by the Giants in the fourth-round last month, is a long-term project who may never start for any team, let alone for Big Blue.

Assuming he is durable and performs as well as he did in place of Wentz, Foles, theoretically, could have another 7-10 years remaining in the tank. He’ll earn more than $20 million a season, so long as doesn’t damage his stock over the next ten months, by entering free agency next March. He’s the type of veteran Gettleman trusts to lead an offense, and he has a history with Shurmur. Leaving the City of Brotherly Love for the Giants would immediately make Foles a hero among the blue New York faithful.

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From his first official transactions, Gettleman bolstered the current roster and also kept eyes on the start of the next decade. Gettleman recognizing Foles may become available next March could explain why the Giants didn’t draft Sam Darnold, Josh Allen or Josh Rosen. Don’t be surprised if New York’s future starting quarterback is already in the NFC East.