I am fairly confident we would have strongly considered bringing Foles back on the franchise tag or competed with the Jags offer on a shorter deal if we did not have a backup we were supremely confident about given Carson's situation(s).
We gave Malik Jackson 10m$ a year, Desean Jackson 9m$ a year, gave Kelce a raise, brought Peters back at 10m$ a year and currently have 21m$ in cap space
https://overthecap.com/salary-cap/philadelphia-eagles/
Bringing back Foles for a year would have worked fine. Sudfeld at the very least being a strong part of the reason we didn't entertain the concept is not completely out of bounds.
We've had a very strong backup quarterback for about 20 years now in Philly. It's Lurie's doctrine and definitely a staple of Andy Reid/Doug Pederson's philosophies. Foles, Vick, Garcia, Sanchez, Blake, Young, Daniel... no way we would have let Foles walk to just settle with Bortles or Tannehill.