The Philadelphia Eagles will have a chance to win their first Super Bowl in Franchise history thanks to the play of backup quarterback Nick Foles, who led the team to two consecutive playoff wins and their third Super Bowl appearance in franchise history.

Eagles’ owner Jeff Lurie told reporters on Monday that the team knew the type of impact Foles could have when they decided to sign him during the offseason.

“Our priority, as you’ve seen, is to make sure we have the very best possible other starting quarterback,” Lurie said, per ESPN’s Dan Graziano. “I won’t even call [Foles] a backup, because we had him evaluated as a very strong quarterback. He’s been 18-5 for us over the last 23 games when Nick has started a game and finished.”

The Eagles signed Foles to a two year contract worth $11 million, with $7 million in guarantees. At the time, people wondered why the team invested about $12 million in the backup quarterback position, but after Foles led the team to wins over the Atlanta Falcons and Minnesota Vikings, the move shows how important it is to have a capable backup, especially if your team is a contender. This is why so much money is coming in on Philadelphia where current Eagles betting odds have them as only 4.5 point underdogs.

“We utilized about $12 million to have a second quarterback. And it may have seemed irrational, but I remember the phone call when it was [executive vice president of football operations] Howie [Roseman] and I talking, and we said, ‘We have an opportunity to do this. Do you have any reservations of using this $12 million this way versus other positions?’ And we both agreed this was absolutely the right thing to do. We never knew it would come to this, but we knew that Nick could win big games for us.”

Foles will try to validate Lurie’s confidence on Sunday by leading the Eagles to their first Super Bowl win.