National Football League

Source: Eagles bringing Sanchez back on two-year deal

Published Mar. 8, 2015 11:59 p.m. ET

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Mark Sanchez entered last season hoping for a fresh start in Philadelphia, laughed at and booed more often than cheered in his days in New York. He ended it as the Eagles' single-season leader in completion percentage.

And for his efforts, he will enter this coming season with some security and quite a bit more money.

The Eagles and their backup-turned-starting QB agreed to a new two-year deal on Sunday, FOX Sports 1 NFL Insider Mike Garafolo reported.

Sanchez started half the Eagles' games last season, taking over when No. 1 quarterback Nick Foles went down with a broken collarbone in Week 8. Sanchez threw fewer passes than Foles, but completed more, threw for more yards and touchdowns than Foles and had the better passer rating (88.4 to 81.4). The 2,418 yards were the most by Sanchez since he started 15 games with the Jets in the 2012 season, the last in which he played prior to 2014. He was injured in the 2013 preseason and never played that season, losing his starting job to then-rookie Geno Smith before being released by the Jets in March of last year.

Sanchez's role in Chip Kelly's offense this season remains to be seen, as Foles is expected to be fully healthy entering training camp and the Eagles are widely considered to be aggressively pursuing a trade up in the draft, in hopes of landing Heisman-winning quarterback Marcus Mariota, who starred for Kelly at the University of Oregon.

Though free agency doesn't officially begin until Tuesday, the Eagles have been the busiest team in the league this off-season.

Last week, the team traded All-Pro running back LeSean McCoy to the Buffalo Bills and also on Sunday they agreed to deals with free-agent running back Frank Gore and free-agent corner Byron Maxwell.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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