Foles Says He's Better Than When He Was Super Bowl MVP
Nick Foles might be the third-string Bears quarterback but he's preparing like he's getting ready for the Super Bowl again.
He's also prepared to be traded if it happens, although he isn't sure if it's going to happen.
The Indianapolis Colts have lost Carson Wentz for as long as 12 weeks, according to coach Frank Reich and Foles is sitting in Chicago with great knowledge of that style of offense. The Colts signed Brett Hundley, a quarterback who has thrown 11 passes since the 2017 season and has a 67.6 career passer rating.
So naturally the talk about Foles being sent to Indianapolis won't die.
"Listen, Frank Reich is one of my favorite, if not favorite, coaches of all-time," Foles said after Monday's Bears practice. "He understands me as a player. He understands me as a person. But I haven't had any talks with them.
"I'm a Chicago Bear right now but I think he knows me. Y'all watched the 2017 season and the playoffs where he changed the offense and built it around me, and y'all saw what happened. So, he understood my mentality as a player and he was able to build it around me and put me in a successful position, and my teammates. But that being said, they have Carson. And Carson and I have a lot of history. I have a lot of respect for Carson. He's a tremendous player. He's going through adversity once again, but he'll bounce back and, you know what, he might miss a few games, but I know he'll be back out there. But, we haven't had any talks so right now I'm a Chicago Bear and I'm gonna keep slinging it with these third-stringers (in practice) and we're gonna dice 'em up."
Foles gets very few play repetitions in practice as the Bears get Andy Dalton and rookie Justin Fields all the opportunities they can.
Earlier in the offseason, rumors of trade talks with the New York Jets popped up at different times.
"There were a couple of opportunities that came to be this offseason, with a couple of teams, but it wasn't the right time," Foles said. "It wasn't the right time, or the situation with what was going on in my life."
Foles made it sound as if he'll have a say in dictating where he goes if he is traded.
"Like I said, you don't want to go somewhere just to go somewhere," he said. "You want to go somewhere where you know the people somewhat, or you know someone who knows the people that can vouch for the people, so you can succeed."
Foles, the Super Bowl MVP after the 2017 season with the Eagles, doesn't feel like an unwanted third-stringer.
"Listen, I'm 32, I feel great," he said. "The version of me right now is much better than the version that played in the Super Bowl, I'll tell you that. And I'm confident in that. So put that through your mind. I know that. I know what this game's about.
"You have to have the whole package as a team. You have to have everyone in there. Top down has to be great. If it's not great you're going to be mediocre. I've seen it, I've been a part of it. And unfortunately when you're a quarterback you've got to go through a bunch of the bologna. But that's part of it. That's why we play this position, that's why we grow."
Foles came to the Bears in March of 2020 before the draft, lost a starting battle to Mitchell Trubisky, came on in relief in Week 3 and led a win but was 2-5 over seven weeks as starter while the Bears were 6-3 in the games Trubisky started.
Then Trubisky was allowed to leave in free agency but Dalton came in as a free agent acquisition, Fields was drafted and Matt Nagy made Foles a third-stringer. Nagy had to talk to Foles and has made it sound like Foles accepted it, but on Monday Foles was reluctant to talk about what went down in that discussion.
"I had a talk in private about what was going on (at that time) that I'm not going to speak about and, you know what, Andy Dalton is a tremendous quarterback and he's an even better person," Foles said. "And he's the leader the team needs and he's doing a great job leading. He's doing a great job impacting and teaching not only the players but the coaches what he wants done and you can see that on the field.
"The guy has had tremendous success in the league and been a starting quarterback for a long time and guys are listening. I love being around him. We get to feed off each other, talk about different things, and it’s been great watching him conduct the offense."
On Tuesday, barring a trade, he'll go back to dicing up the third-team defense.
Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven
