Eagles Re-Sign Mark Sanchez


Photo Credit: Jeff Fusco

Photo Credit: Jeff Fusco

The Eagles and Mark Sanchez have agreed on a two-year deal, a league source confirms. The contract contains $5.5 million guaranteed with a max value of $16 million if all incentives are met, per Mike Garafolo of Fox Sports.

Jon and Sean of 97.5 The Fanatic were the first to report the move.

A couple questions immediately come to mind with this signing:

1) Why would Sanchez — arguably the top free-agent quarterback of this class — re-sign unless he thought he had a legitimate chance to start?

2) Why would the Eagles give him that type of money if they were looking at him strictly as a backup?

Many have speculated that this is further evidence that a move for Marcus Mariota is on the horizon and that Nick Foles‘ time in Philly is coming to an end.

A source close to Foles expressed no surprise when news of the Sanchez signing came down. The Foles camp was expecting this by the sounds of it, and aren’t necessarily viewing it as a sign of Foles’ imminent departure.

Both sides are expecting a quarterback competition.

If Sanchez wins and hangs onto the job, he’ll be rewarded. There are play-time and team success incentives that begin to kick in when Sanchez reaches the 50 percent play-time threshold, per a league source. If the team thrives under his stewardship, his money goes up.

Sanchez went 4-4 as the starter last season in place of Foles, completing a career-high 64 percent of his throws for 2,418 yards with 14 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. He signed a one-year, $2.25 million deal with the Eagles last offseason.