It’s well-chronicled how Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys dismissed the idea of Nick Foles before the 2016 season began.
Dallas was heading into that season with Tony Romo, Kellen Moore, Jameill Showers, and then-rookie Dak Prescott as their quarterbacks. They’d just endured a lost season because of a Romo injury, and Kellen Moore hadn’t been too impressive when he saw time as a result.
Moore would ultimately break his leg, opening the door for Dak Prescott to begin his ascent to the team’s top signal-caller position, but before he did the Cowboys supported him over the idea of Foles.
Foles was released by the Los Angeles Rams on Wednesday, and while the Cowboys broached the subject, it was not something considered for very long.
”We like Moore,” Jones said.
Recently, when the Foles-led Eagles found themselves in Super Bowl LII, Jerry Jones doubled down on his comments. He noted that had the Cowboys signed Foles the team wouldn’t have been able to give snaps to Dak Prescott, and his full ascent wouldn’t have happened.
This is fair logic obviously, but what if the Cowboys had signed Foles? Nick would ultimately latch on to the Kansas City Chiefs that season before reuniting with Philadelphia in 2017, but what if Dallas had brought him in?
Foles would have likely been given preference when Tony Romo was hurt in Seattle during the third week of the preseason, and we may have never discovered Dak Prescott. That possibility is real, but go further down the rabbit hole with me for a second.
Say the Cowboys had signed Nick Foles, who played brilliantly in Super Bowl LII and was a huge part of why the Eagles won it. What if Foles had stuck around Dallas in 2017 a season later, whether behind Tony Romo or Dak Prescott?
The answer to what would have happened to the Cowboys is a complicated one, but in this timeline Nick Foles never gets back to Philadelphia in 2017. This means that when Carson Wentz goes down in Los Angeles in December that someone else takes over the reigns to try and finish the season strong for Philadelphia.
Would that someone else have played as well as Foles did (still a shocking statement to say)? Would that someone else have gotten Philadelphia to Super Bowl LII? Would that someone else have won Super Bowl LII and been named the game’s Most Valuable Player?
This is all hypothetical, and maybe we’re just lost and spinning in circles because we now live in a world where a Lombardi Trophy belongs to the Eagles, but it’s interesting to consider.
Did the Cowboys insistence on Kellen Moore over Nick Foles serve as the first domino that re-shaped NFL history allowing the ensuing ones to fall in favor of the Philadelphia Eagles winning Super Bowl LII against the New England Patriots? Had they chosen Foles over Moore would it at the very least not have potentially served as a defensive move in hindsight?
The good news is we only have all offseason to wonder.