The 2017-18 NFL season is officially over! Yay!
Good riddance to this joke of a season. At least the outcome was something different from the obvious norm of “Oh my god, Tom Brady won another one!” Even as a Cowboys fan I found myself eventually cheering for the Eagles and actually thought it was pretty cool to see them win their first title. Ok, that’s enough of that.
So now that we’re officially into a new NFL season, let’s talk about what will soon be one of the intriguing off-season story lines this year.
The NFC East QB situation.
At least we can look at one team, in the Cowboys, and say, “Hey, they’re set at quarterback. No worries there, Dak is clearly their franchise guy with nobody else competing for his job.” However, every other team in the NFC East has major questions at the position; so let’s try to figure this out—shall we?
Washington Redskins
The Redskins pulled off a massive trade just before the Super Bowl to acquire QB Alex Smith from the Kansas City Chiefs, and he didn’t come cheap. Giving up a third round pick and a talented young CB like Kendall Fuller isn’t exactly an ideal package just to get an old, barely above-average, quarterback like Smith, but hey—who am I to judge?
For all the time management and weight issues Andy Reid is ruthlessly made fun of for, there is one thing he is better at than any other person in the NFL—completely fleecing the Washington Redskins for aging, “past their prime” quarterbacks. You’d think Washington would have learned after the Donovan McNabb experiment, but no—it’s just business as usual up in D.C.
Now here’s where the situation gets a bit—murky. You would think that the trade of Smith means that Kirk Cousins is 110% gone this off-season, but now there are rumors that they’re considering exercising Cousins’ franchise tag? Again? For the 5000th time?
Not even the most co-dependent of people could deal with another human being stringing them along the way Washington has with Cousins, so it will be interesting to see how he deals with this. I feel like Kirk Cousins tenure with the NFL is kind of like my relationships. Always wondering when they’re going to find someone better than him. It’s a scary place to be and it’s going to be an interesting scenario to watch play out this spring.
New York Giants
The Giants shouldn’t have a quarterback issue this off-season, to be honest. The offensive line is what they should be focused on fixing, but with the team being in almost full rebuild mode, it might be time to part ways with the Little Eli. After a brutally public benching it looked like there was a chance the Giants might trade Manning to the Jaguars to reunite with Tom Coughlin. Who knows if Jacksonville could have made it passed the Patriots if they had the experience of a QB who had bested them twice before in big games?
So will we see Eli in Jacksonville next season or back in a Giants uniform? He would have to waive his no-trade clause for New York to facilitate a trade and I doubt he would agree to go just anywhere. So if they can’t find a trade partner this off-season they’ll either have to draft someone and cut Eli or just roll with the old man just a little bit longer.
Philadelphia Eagles
There isn’t so much a quarterback controversy situation for the Eagles, as much as there is a “what in the hell do they do with Nick Foles” situation. I know there is a camp out there that thinks the Eagles need to consider sticking with Foles as their starter, even when Carson Wentz is healthy, but that camp is full of stupid people. Don’t get me wrong, Foles is a decent quarterback, and he looked great in the Eagles first Super Bowl win, but he has his limitations and weaknesses.
Wentz is younger, bigger, stronger, faster, and has a much better arm. I have no doubt in my mind that had Wentz been healthy, he would have been able to lead the Eagles to a victory just as well as Foles did.
So now what do they do with Foles? Do they keep him as a backup just in case Wentz goes down again, or do they try to trade him? Part of me wants to say they should keep him “just in case”, but can you really keep Foles happy as a backup after he was just the Super Bowl MVP? So the obvious choice is that they should trade him to a team willing to give up the farm for him. The Browns are always desperate and have a slew of draft picks and the Jaguars might roll the dice if they decide to move on from “Mr. Check Down” himself, Blake Bortles, but neither is a guarantee.
No matter what they decide to do, all I know is that the Eagles are in great position. They have a loaded roster, a young, franchise quarterback coming back from injury next year, and now possibly one of the biggest trade chips in the NFL this off-season. Happy hunting Eagles.
