Picture this:

The Eagles play their first home game of the 2021 season, welcoming back 65,000 rowdy fans for the first time in more than a year. They’re all vaccinated and hungry for Birds football, after spending the prior year stuck inside and watching a terrible product on TV.

In the first half, Jalen Hurts goes out and throws two interceptions, then the idiots in the nosebleed section start booing and calling for backup quarterback Nick Foles.

It’s a hypothetical, yes, but it’s under consideration, according to ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler, who said this on Saturday (credit BGN for the transcription):

“I wouldn’t take a Nick Foles/Philadelphia reunion off the table right now. Because a few weeks ago, when Chicago was looking to get Carson Wentz, they included Nick Foles in a potential package to Philadelphia. Now, Wentz ultimately went to Indianapolis. But those talks have been ongoing, they’re in place, all they would have to do this week is revive them. Philadelphia is looking for a high level backup, somebody to come in and support Jalen Hurts. Meanwhile, Chicago is just looking to dump some salary right now. They’re in some cap problems, Nick Foles carries a $6.6 [million] cap hit that they could get off their books. I eventually think he’ll be traded, Philadelphia is an option for him.”

On paper, it sounds nice, doesn’t it? The Eagles move on from Carson Wentz and bring back a beloved franchise legend to help mentor Jalen Hurts and the QB3, if they go with another young guy in that position. But aren’t we being naive to think that Foles would just hold a clipboard and everybody would be alright with it? All it would take is one bad throw, one bad snap, one fumble or interception and you’d have the Folesian Society calling for their guy, and that’s not the goal. The goal is to move this thing forward with a young quarterback and dive headfirst into a transitional phase with new players and a new outlook.

If the Eagles brought back Nick Foles, it would prove that Howie Roseman and company learned absolutely nothing from last year, when they went out and drafted Hurts in the second round, destabilizing a situation that looked pretty solid from our perspective. Wentz had finally played himself out of Foles’ shadow and should have been in a decent head space, but obviously went on to play one of the worst seasons in Eagles’ history.

And maybe it was Carson’s fault. He could, indeed, be mentally soft, but the point is that the Birds went out and undermined their franchise QB, which is dumb.

On the other hand, we all know that Hurts dealt with a lot of adversity at Alabama, and lost his job. He’s pretty tough and has been there before, not necessarily at this level, but down in Tuscaloosa, where the locals are more passionate and knowledgeable than most NFL fans. That considered, Hurts could be perfectly fine playing in front of Foles, but when you put the most popular quarterback in Eagles history in the QB2 slot, you’re just creating a situation that doesn’t need to be created. You don’t need healthy competition or unhealthy competition. You need zero competition, because a guy like Hurts has the mental composition to organically motivate himself and play hard. He doesn’t need a Super Bowl winner holding a clipboard on the sidelines and breathing down his neck. He doesn’t need 65,000 bozos voicing their displeasure from the stands or on the sports talk radio airlines. We literally just dealt with all of this horseshit in 2020.

Honestly, I’d rather just go with Alex Smith or Chase Daniel at this point. Even Joe Flacco, who is rumored to be visiting the Eagles this week. Plus, if you want Foles, you gotta trade for him, and giving up any kind of draft asset for him, even a 6th rounder, would be borderline insane. It just wouldn’t make any sense at all. If Chicago ends up releasing him or he hits the open market at some point later in time, then yeah, maybe you think about it then, but definitely not right now.

Plus, aren’t we done with the nostalgia thing? DeSean Jackson didn’t work out. Everybody wanted a Shady reunion. Let’s bring back all the people Chip Kelly cut, and extend the Super Bowl team and kick more money down the road! Foles is only 32, so of course he’s not some old man, but we’re generally trying to hit the reset button and usher in a new era of Eagles football. Nick’s Eagles story is already written. It’s absolutely perfect. It’s a New York Times best seller that doesn’t need an addendum.