With one year left on his contract with the Philadelphia Eagles, Nick Foles restructured the agreement Friday to include a $2 million bonus and millions of dollars in incentives should he become the team’s starting quarterback and hit certain goals, according to the NFL Network. The deal also includes a mutual (team and player) option for 2019, when Foles was set to become an unrestricted free agent.
The bonus and revised contract come on the heels of Foles, Philadelphia’s backup, leading the team to its first Super Bowl championship and earning the game’s MVP honors. He filled in remarkably for starter Carson Wentz, who suffered a season-ending knee injury late last season. Foles threw six touchdowns and one interception on 73-percent passing last postseason.
Because of that strong performance, many teams have been interested in trading for the QB. But he’s staying in Philly, and this new deal rewards Foles for stepping up last season. It also sets the stage for Foles to stay in Philadelphia longer if the right circumstances arise, or hit free agency if he chooses.
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Bring your family to work day! pic.twitter.com/A0RBoTPDFO
— Nick Foles (@NickFoles) April 20, 2018
This is all quite a turnaround considering Foles nearly retired from football. Sharing with You Version’s Bible app devotional back in the summer of 2017, he talked about how close he got to ending his professional football career.
“A lot of people don’t know this — I’m going to share this right now, because I think it’s important. After my time with a certain NFL team, I wanted to retire,” Foles said. “This was a year ago. I wanted to retire from the NFL, and I really struggled. I couldn’t pick up a football for about eight months. I had no love for the game, and it was tough.”
Foles continued: “I kept reading Scripture, I kept praying, I kept asking God — and so many of us ask God for signs. We ask God, ‘Hey, please just put it on the wall, like, I want to know,’ but that’s not how it works. He’s not always going to do that. He was shaping me. He was bringing me down to my knees …
“At that moment, through that prayer, He said, ‘Hey, just take a step of faith. You’re either going to stop playing the game of football and you’re going to go onto a different area of your life and I’m going to be with you, I’m going to be the most important thing in your life, or you’re going to step back into football and you’re going to continue to play and I’m going to be with you every step of the way and you’re going to play to glorify Me.”
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