PHILADELPHIA (94 WIP) -- Nick Foles is free.
Philadelphia Eagles general manager Howie Roseman addressed the media at the NFL combine on Wednesday and announced that the team will not place the franchise tag on folk-hero backup quarterback Nick Foles, letting him become a free agent.
"We've been so fortunate the over last couple of years to have to have two top-15 quarterbacks in Carson (Wentz) and Nick," Roseman said. "We've spent a lot of time discussing this internally and with him, and we have decided to let Nick become a free-agent."
The window for NFL teams to place the franchise tag on players closes on March 5. The franchise tag is expected to be worth approximately $25 million for quarterbacks.
There was plenty of risk in franchising Foles. If the Eagles did tag Foles and he signed it, his salary would have become fully guaranteed. That means the Eagles would have been unable to remove it from their salary cap and would have been committing roughly $25 million to him as a backup.
The possible destinations for Foles have decreased, so tagging and trading him became increasingly more difficult. The Jacksonville Jaguars and Miami Dolphins are the top two potential landing spots for Foles in free agency, which begins March 13. The Washington Redskins remain in the conversation. The front offices of the New York Giants (Eli Manning) and Oakland Raiders (Derek Carr) came out in support of their incumbent quarterbacks on Wednesday.
Foles finished each of the past two seasons as the Eagles' playoff starter following injuries to Wentz. Foles won MVP honors in Super Bowl LII last February after leading the Eagles over the New England Patriots, 41-33, for their first NFL title since 1960. This season, the Eagles lost in the divisional round.
Foles, 30, was a third-round draft pick in 2012.