Philadelphia

Nick Foles Denies Eagles-Browns Trade Discussion

Nick Foles disputed a published report that he told the Eagles he didn't want to be traded to the Browns.

NFL.com reported last week that the Browns offered the 35th pick in this year's draft to the Eagles for the Super Bowl MVP and that the Eagles consulted with Foles, who told them he preferred to stay with the Eagles (see story).

But Foles, speaking with the media for the first time since the report, said he never spoke to anybody in the Eagles' front office about a potential trade and never said he didn't want to go to the Browns.

"First time I heard about it was when I got text messages asking if it was true," he said. "That was the first I heard of it. It never got to a discussion with me."

Foles quarterbacked the Eagles to their first Super Bowl championship after replacing injured Carson Wentz. He's expected to return to a backup role as soon as Wentz is healthy.

The Eagles shopped Foles, but Eagles executive vice president of football operations Howie Roseman said he would talk to Foles if there were a serious offer before he executed a deal.

Foles said that never happened.

"There wasn't any discussion on the trades," Foles said at his locker after OTA practice Tuesday (see observations)

"I think that Howie said what he wanted from me and I just said if there's ever a point where you want to sit down and have a discussion, if there was something he was interested in, we would sit down and talk about it, but that never came to be and I'm here and I'm excited to be here.

"I haven't turned down anything, we haven't talked about anything. That wasn't a true statement at all."

Foles threw three touchdowns and passed for 373 yards in the Eagles' 41-33 win over the Patriots in Super Bowl LII in Minneapolis in February.

He passed for 971 yards with six TDs and one INT and completed 73 percent of his passes in the postseason.

"I'm excited to be here," he said. "At the end of the day, I'm not the general manager of this team. I have a great relationship with Howie where if something did happen, we could have a discussion, but at the end of the day, he gets to decide. 

"I'm just a player. But I'm a grateful player to be here. Now it's done."

The Eagles reworked Foles' contract in April, giving him a $2 million bonus and adding huge incentives in the event that Wentz isn't ready for the opener and Foles does play this coming season.

"We restructured my deal so I would be here and everything would work out," he said. "It provided protection for me, it provided protection for the team. That was sort of us both saying we both want me to be here. 

"I love this team, I love everything about this city, Philadelphia. My wife and I decided to come back here. We're grateful to be here, we're grateful that the team embraced me being back here."

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