Arizona Cardinals: Super Bowl MVP not the solution

Orchestrating a trade for the MVP of Super Bowl LII may not solve the Arizona Cardinals’ dilemma at the quarterback position

Arizona Cardinals’ general manager Steve Keim must’ve liked what he was watching. Little did Nick Foles know, but as he was beating the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LII, he was more or less auditioning. Showcasing his talents for a Cardinals’ squad that’s in desperate need of a quarterback that can take over for the now-retired Carson Palmer.

It was a true case of David and Goliath, as the Philadelphia Eagles’ backup went tit for tat with perhaps the game’s best ever, Tom Brady. Foles’ near-perfect performance landed his club their first-ever Vince Lombardi Trophy. It also all but guarantees that the University of Arizona product will never have to buy his own cheesesteak in South Philly ever again.

It’s no big secret that

the Cards’ main agenda for the offseason is acquiring a signal-caller. The main objective initially for Arizona’s brass was to find a new head coach. That was accomplished with the hiring of Steve Wilks, who in turn brought in Mike McCoy to be his offensive coordinator.

There’s a decent possibility that Foles’ name has been brought up at Cardinals’ headquarters. If former Washington Redskins’ starter Kirk Cousins is not the number-one passer on Keim’s wish-list, then he should be. The problem with that scenario is that Cousins will have many suitors, which could lessen the chance that the Cards will be successful in landing the talented player.

With Cousins quite possibly being a longshot at best, targeting someone like Foles seems logical. Despite the major role the Texan had in bringing a Super Bowl Championship to Philadelphia, he’s still playing second-fiddle in the “City of Brotherly Love”. Eagles’ starter Carson Wentz was well on his way to becoming the NFL’s MVP before tearing his ACL, and is going nowhere.

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While bringing Foles to the desert sounds like a good idea on the surface, there are drawbacks. Arizona has actually been down this road with Philly before. And the results were not good.

Back in 2011, the Cardinals were basically in the same pickle that they are now. Kevin Kolb arrived from Philadelphia in one of the worst trades in Cards’ history. Michael Vick’s backup turned out to be as durable as a wet paper bag, and was gone after just two seasons.

Of course, Foles and Kolb are two different individuals. Nevertheless, making an investment in another franchise’s second-stringer carries some risk. Would Foles perform as well in McCoy’s system as he has in Eagles’ head coach Doug Pederson’s?

There’s also a chance that Philly would want to hold onto Foles. There’s no guarantee that Wentz will be recovered sufficiently enough from his knee surgery to be ready for the 2018 season-opener. However, Philadelphia is currently OVER the salary-cap limit, and Foles’ $7.6 million cap hit for ’18 is exorbitant for a backup.

The red flags associated with bringing Foles to Arizona are there. If Keim strikes out in landing Cousins, a “bridge” quarterback and a developmental rookie would probably be a better plan. Foles could turn out out to be a colossal mistake that the Cardinals just can’t afford to make again.

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