Imagine if this had taken place some five years ago. According to a report from ESPN’s Phil Sheridan the defending champion Philadelphia Eagles once turned down a Cleveland Browns trade offer that would have sent Josh Gordon further east in exchange for Super Bowl LII MVP Nick Foles.
“The Philadelphia Eagles turned down a trade that would have brought them Cleveland Browns wide receiver Josh Gordon at the start of the 2013 NFL season,” Sheridan reported.
At the time, Gordon was facing a two-game suspension for violating the NFL’s substance abuse policy. Since then, he’s been suspended multiple times and just recently returned after two years out of the league.
For his part, Foles would ultimately be traded to the then St. Louis Rams two years later for a package including Sam Bradford.
In the world of what-ifs, this would have changed the entire dynamic of multiple teams around the league. Foles would never have played for the Rams or Chiefs, making it questionable whether he would have returned to Philadelphia as a free agent this past offseason.
Bradford wouldn’t have been traded to Philadelphia for Foles, making the Vikings’ swap for Bradford prior to the start of the 2016 non-existent. Meanwhile, the Browns might have found themselves a franchise quarterback, changing the team’s future in the process.
It’s a fun thing to look at.
But it never came to fruition. Foles is the reigning Super Bowl MVP. The Eagles are coming off their first ever Super Bowl title. Meanwhile, Cleveland is coming off just the second winless 16-game season in NFL history.