The Sports Xchange

EARTH CITY, Mo. — Now comes the hard part.

When quarterback Nick Foles was acquired from the Philadelphia Eagles in March for Sam Bradford, the St. Louis Rams were pleased with what was being added to the roster.

Still, there is never a way of truly knowing how a player, especially a quarterback, will take to his new team. Foles answered those questions positively through the offseason and early in training camp. The result was a two-year contract extension that provides some security without the team committing to a truly long-term deal.

Scheduled to be paid $1.542 million in the last year of his rookie contract, the total value of the two additional years is $24.5 million, with close to $14 million guaranteed. However, the true nature of those guarantees isn’t known yet, and the 2017 year can be voided if he makes the Pro Bowl or the Rams achieve an unknown level of success.

The reality: If Foles plays this season the way he and the team believes he will, there is the likelihood of a renegotiation after the season.

Coach Jeff Fisher said “it was important to us” to get a deal done before the season.

“We’ve seen enough,” Fisher said. “We wanted to get a deal done that was good for both sides.”

While there were some raised eyebrows considering Foles has yet to take a snap for the team, even in a preseason game, Rams president Kevin Demoff told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “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 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.”

Asked what has impressed him about Foles, Fisher added, “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. 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.”

The latter is the hope. The Eagles were a success with him under center the last two seasons, while the Rams are 20-27-1 during Fisher’s three seasons. But the Rams have had no stability at quarterback, and that’s what they hope to get from Foles.

“I’m blessed,” Foles said. “It really is an honor to be here and be wanted here. I think entering the season with all that taken care of is great, but either way I would’ve been me. 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.”

He also said he loves playing for Fisher.

“Coach Fisher — around the league, guys that had played for him, coaches that have coached under him just say he’s the best,” Foles said. “He’s just one of those guys that I’ve just never heard a negative thing about. When I met him and since I’ve been here, I can see why that is. He’s a guy you want to fight for; he’s a guy you want to play for. All these guys here love him. And that’s why we have such a great culture that we’re building here. I’m excited to be a part of it.”