The Philadelphia Eagles' Super Bowl hopes looked doomed when Carson Wentz went down with a torn ACL in early December -- until Nick Foles proved he's worth every penny the team has invested in him.
Speaking to reporters at Super Bowl LII Opening Night, Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie didn't mince words when it comes to the impact Foles has made this season.
"Our priority, as you've seen, is to make sure we have the very best possible other starting quarterback," Lurie said, per ESPN's Dan Graziano. "I won't even call [Foles] a backup, because we had him evaluated as a very strong quarterback. He's been 18-5 for us over the last 23 games when Nick has started a game and finished."
The two-year, $11 million contract (including $7 million in guarantees) the Eagles signed Foles to last March might have seemed steep at the time for a signal-caller who only appeared in three games with the Chiefs last year. Lurie said he and Howie Roseman, the Eagles' executive vice president of football operations, knew signing Foles was the insurance policy they needed in case Wentz was lost to injury.
"We never knew it would come to this, but we knew that Nick could win big games for us," Lurie said.
While Foles admitted Monday he never imagined he "would be the starter in the Super Bowl when the season started," if he replicates the kind of performance he had against the Minnesota Vikings, the Eagles could very well win their first Super Bowl title.
