It seems that the St. Louis Rams, despite deftly turning former first-overall draft pick and injury-prone signal-caller Sam Bradford into two picks - one of which is a 2016 second-rounder - and quarterback Nick Foles, had other, just as intriguing offers on the table from interested NFL parties.
Rams head coach Jeff Fisher, appearing on an episode of Pro Football Talk Live Friday, revealed to host Mike Florio that he had an offer from another undisclosed NFL team of a first-round pick in the upcoming 2015 NFL Draft for Bradford, but chose not to pull the trigger.
Why did Fisher decide to do the deal with the Philadelphia Eagles and Chip Kelly instead?
Fisher was enamored with Nick Foles and had targeted him as the next franchise signal-caller for the Rams.
"There were some discussions, yes, but from our standpoint, the first-round pick - obviously it's attractive, but you still don't have a quarterback. It's a late pick and then would we move up and get into position to draft one? It didn't make sense to us," Fisher said.
Foles, who held his introductory press conference with St. Louis today, has a career 15-9 record as a starting quarterback in the NFL.
His career rating in parts of three NFL seasons is 94.2, and he's amassed 6,753 yards passing and 46 touchdowns. In eight games last season, he threw for 2,163 yards, thirteen touchdowns and 10 interceptions.
Foles, of course, is known mostly for setting the NFL record for touchdown-to-interception ratio after throwing 27 touchdowns and just two interceptions in the 2013 season - a year which included a seven-touchdown performance in a game against the Oakland Raiders and culminated in a Pro Bowl appearance and Pro Bowl MVP award.
The former third-round pick has dealt with his own fair share of injury issues in his career - he lost three games to injury in that magical 2013 season and missed the final eight games of 2014 after breaking his collarbone - which is ironic considering he was acquired as part of a package for a guy in Bradford that has struggled to stay healthy for almost the entirety of his professional life.
Still, it has to be refreshing for fans of the Rams to finally be out from under Bradford's massive contract and to finally have a guy under center hand-picked by the head coach as the leader of his football team.
It will be great theater to watch Foles do his best to raise up the formerly moribund Rams franchise and, hopefully, prove Fisher's decision to turn his nose up at a first-round pick right.
