The Eagles could sell high on Nick Foles and trade him shortly after the Super Bowl

Foles would have real value as a trade chip.

Nick Foles will start at quarterback for the Eagles in Super Bowl 52 against the Patriots on Sunday. There’s a good chance it’s Foles’ last game with the organization.

Foles is just 29, but he’s already had a winding career. The Eagles drafted the Arizona alum in the third round of the 2012 draft. A year later, Foles supplanted an injured Michael Vick as the Eagles’ starting quarterback and posted an outrageous 27-to-2 touchdowns-to-interceptions ratio. Foles figured to be Philadelphia’s quarterback of the future, but he broke his collarbone the next year and declined in the eight games he managed to play. The Rams traded for him and made him their starter in 2015, but Foles played poorly and requested his own release the next summer.

He spent a forgettable year as Alex Smith’s backup for the Chiefs. He signed what amounts to a two-year contract with the Eagles before the 2017 season, then sat on the bench until Carson Wentz tore an ACL in December. Now Foles is going to try to beat Tom Brady shot-for-shot in the biggest football game of his life.

It’s not hard to envision the Eagles trading Foles in the next few months.

Foles’ contract with the Eagles, signed before this season, is technically for five years. But it’s not really that long, because the contract has a void clause if Foles remains on Philadelphia’s roster in Feburary 2019. The idea there: Foles couldn’t be forced to sit behind Carson Wentz more than two years, and the Eagles were able to lower Foles’ salary cap hit some by extending the term of his deal.

Foles has probably increased his value substantially by guiding the Eagles to the Super Bowl without Wentz. The Eagles will face a tough decision after the Super Bowl: Keep Foles for another year and enjoy having one of the better backup QBs in the league, or trade an increasingly valuable asset before he walks for nothing.

Wentz’s injury has underscored Foles’ importance to the Eagles. But you never expect to lose your MVP-candidate quarterback to a torn ligament. Eagles general manager Howie Roseman might decide to move on from his valuable backup in that spirit.

“After the game, that’s where you have time to sort of reflect on the year, and that’s what we’ll do,” Foles told reporters before the game. “I’ll spend time with my family and use that family time. The future will take care of itself.”

If Foles does get traded, he’ll bring back a worthwhile return.

We know that because if Foles doesn’t command a serious return, the Eagles won’t just trade him for no reason. And they definitely won’t cut him on the heels of this run.

Since 2013, NFL teams have made at least 19 trades involving active quarterbacks, according to a tracker at Sports-Reference. We can sort those QBs into buckets:

• Mid- or late-career veterans who had been starters for years and weren’t obviously over the hill: Sam Bradford (twice!), Alex Smith (twice, including for a third-round pick and cornerback Kendall Fuller this week) Carson Palmer
• Young-ish backups who’d shown promise: Matt Flynn, Jimmy Garoppolo, Foles himself when the Eagles traded him for Bradford in 2015
• Dudes who probably looked OK as stopgaps to teams that were in absolutely desperate need of a quarterback: Matt Schaub, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Colt McCoy
• Etc.: Matt Barkley (twice!), Cardale Jones, Seneca Wallace, Ryan Mallett, TJ Yates, Matt Cassell, Brock Osweiler

A post-Super Bowl run Foles is probably closest to the first group there. It’s difficult to argue at this point that Foles is not one of the 32 best quarterbacks in the NFL. Some team could start him next year and not feel bad about it at all. Foles will be 29 in 2018. Bradford (28, after the first time he was traded) and Smith (29, after his first time) were similar ages in their first years after getting dealt.

Foles won’t be as valuable as Garoppolo was when the Patriots moved him to the 49ers for a high second-round pick in the 2018 draft. Garoppolo will turn 27 about midway through his first post-trade season, and he had the added allure of coming from New England’s Bill Belichick-Tom Brady-Josh McDaniels quarterback incubator.

He probably won’t be as valuable as Smith and Bradford were, either. Both of them had much longer track records of competence as starting QBs. Bradford netted the Eagles a first-round pick and future fourth-rounder when the Eagles sent him to the Vikings in 2016, ahead of his age-29 season. Smith was worth two second-rounders when the 49ers sent him to the Chiefs. Flynn was worth a fifth-rounder when the Seahawks traded him to the Raiders, months after signing him as a hot backup out of Green Bay.

Foles shouldn’t be worth less than Flynn, right? He’s not as safe a bet as Smith, either, but would likely cost less to sign long-term, and Smith just brought back a third-rounder and a decent player despite costing a lot. Foles should at least get a mid-round draft pick, and that has value in the NFL.

At any rate, Foles’ future will be a hard call for the Eagles.

All the more reason to live in the moment on Sunday.