The St. Louis Rams pulled of a pretty remarkable trade by sending former first-round bust Sam Bradford to the Philadelphia Eagles in exchange for Nick Foles and a second-round pick in the 2016 NFL draft. In addition to shedding a ton of money off their cap, the Rams got arguably the higher-upside player for an offense that has a lot of nice pieces.
Let's take a look at what this might mean for Foles' fantasy production in 2015 and beyond.
The first thing we have to look at here is St. Louis' skill positions. After all, a quarterback's fantasy performance is going to depend a great deal on the talent around him. With the Rams set to re-sign Kenny Britt, Foles will have a solid possession guy to help move the chains. Britt caught nearly 60 percent of the 81 passes thrown in his direction last year, accumulating 750 yards and three touchdowns. He could very well play a Jeremy Maclin-lite role for Foles in St. Louis.
Outside of that, fantasy owners should be concerned. The Rams other three top receivers combined for just 87 receptions and four touchdowns. With that said, Brian Quick did miss the team's final nine games after starting the season out stong. Britt and Quick should form a solid outside combination for Foles in St. Louis.
Even with a decent running game last year, St. Louis chose to pass the ball 56 percent of the time in 2014. Tre Mason put up 913 total yards and averaged over 4.5 yards per touch as a rookie in 2014.
It's going to be interesting to see how the Rams change up this philosophy with a more consistent quarterback under center—one that might actually suit up for a full game.
Coming off a 2013 campaign that saw him throw for 27 touchdowns compared to two interceptions in 13 games (10 starts), Foles struggled this past season before going down with injury. He threw 13 touchdowns and 10 interceptions in eight starts. Whether it was a product of Chip Kelly's scheme, Foles also put up nearly 2,200 passing yards in eight games. The touchdown numbers and passing yards equate to top-12 fantasy numbers, but it's going to be hard to gauge where Foles stands until we get a sample size in St. Louis.
At this point in the offseason, it makes sense to pick Foles up as a top-end QB2 in standard re-draft leagues. He's the type of quarterback you can bring in to supplement a bottom-end QB1 if you're going for the late-round quarterback strategy. However, I wouldn''t recommend drafting Foles as a reliable starter.