Rams say Foles is their man with extension
• By Jim Thomas
http://www.stltoday.com/sports/foot...cle_0d078c55-eafb-5b37-b01b-480af03efe5e.html
The Rams handed the car keys to quarterback Nick Foles with a contract extension.
“He won’t crash,” Rams executive vice president Kevin Demoff said.
Without throwing a pass for the team in the regular season, or even the preseason, the Rams have seen enough in Foles. They signed their new starter to a two-year contract extension Friday, shortly before the start of the team’s practice and scrimmage at Lindenwood University.
Foles had been scheduled to be an unrestricted free agent after this season. Now, he could be under contract through the 2017 season, with the three-year value of the deal at $26 million as confirmed through league sources. He was scheduled to make $1.52 million this season, so the two-year extension is worth $24.5 million. Just under $14 million of the total is guaranteed.
“It’s his baby now,” said coach Jeff Fisher, who announced the deal after Friday’s practice before about 4,000 at Lindenwood. “This is his team. So we’ve got to go win games.”
Interestingly, the 2017 season in Foles’ contract can be voided based on team victories and a Pro Bowl berth. So while the deal gives Foles — and the Rams — some security at the position, the extension is hardly what could be called a long-term deal.
The Rams have more than a dozen players, either starters or key role players, with contracts that expire at the end of this season. Foles, who was acquired from Philadelphia in the Sam Bradford trade in March, was at the top of the list in terms of priorities.
“I think from the moment we made the trade, we always knew we wanted to try to find a way to get Nick some security,” Demoff said. “And for us to be able to plan for the long-term future with Nick at quarterback. We looked at a lot of different ideas and concepts, and spent a few months with his representatives trying to come up with something that made sense for both sides.”
Senior assistant Tony Pastoors of the Rams handled the negotiations.
Foles, 26, earned a Pro Bowl berth with Philadelphia in 2013 — a season in which he threw 27 touchdown passes and only two interceptions. But he struggled in 2014 and missed half the season with a broken collarbone.
After signing the contract at Rams Park, Foles got on the team bus and sat in the front seat next to Fisher on the short bus ride to Lindenwood. His teammates didn’t know about the deal until word spread after the scrimmage.
“I’m blessed,” Foles said after practice. “I’m just really thankful to Mr. (Stan) Kroenke, Coach Fisher, Les (Snead), and Kevin. I’m just thankful to be here — be with these guys. ... It really is an honor to be here and be wanted here.”
While Foles was surprised at the trade that brought him here in March, that wasn’t the case with the extension. Foles’ basic stance on negotiations was if it happened, great. But if a deal couldn’t be reached, he wasn’t going to let it affect his play.
“I think entering the season with all that taken care of is great, but either way I would’ve been me,” Foles said. “It’s one of those things that it’s not going to affect me when I play this game. I play it for my teammates, I play it for the people that support us, my family. So that would never change the way I play the game.”
As has been his custom so far in dealing with the media as a Ram, Foles showed little outward emotion about the new deal. But Fisher couldn’t help smiling — several times, in fact — during his remarks after practice.
“It was important to us,” Fisher said. “We’ve seen enough (in Foles). We wanted to get a deal done that was good for both sides.”
In a lot of cases, teams want to see a player new to their roster perform for a while before deciding whether to extend the contract. But that wasn’t necessary in the case of Foles and the Rams, according to Fisher.
“It’s what he’s done on the field early in his career thus far in the league, and then what he’s done for us since he got here,” Fisher said. “He gets the game. He understands it. He’s got tremendous leadership qualities and we can settle in and now the players can rally around him. He can rally them and we’ll go on and win a lot of games.”
One of the early stories involving Foles was how quickly he established his presence in the locker room, the meeting room, and on the practice field. General manager Snead has talked about his ability to relate to people.
“When you’re the quarterback, you’re one of the guys that everyone’s gonna look to automatically, so there’s definitely a leadership role that takes place,” Foles said. “But there’s many leaders on this team that do a great job, and that’s how you build or bolster a winning franchise.
“I can’t do it alone. There’s a lot of guys on this team that do a great job of working hard, keeping guys going. It’s a team game. I’m just a small piece of the puzzle.”
The Rams are still working on contract extensions for several other players scheduled to be free agents after the 2015 season. If Foles was the top priority, cornerback Janoris Jenkins probably is 1A. The team is also talking to the agents for wide receiver Brian Quick, safety Rodney McLeod and tight end/fullback Cory Harkey, among others, about new deals.