Bears Trade for Jaguars Quarterback Nick Foles

The Bears have brought in a former Super Bowl MVP by trading for quarterback Nick Foles.

The trade may supply the safest route for current starter Mitchell Trubisky to remain in his position this year, because Foles has been a backup as recently as last year.

The Bears dealt away a fourth-round draft pick for Foles in the process, according to an Adam Schefter report for ESPN. It is the fourth-round compensatory pick the Bears received and they now have only two picks in the first four rounds of the draft, both in Round 2.

Trubisky would be much more likely to start out as the quarterback with Foles coming to Chicago, but Foles also has more ability to step in right away and run the offense than either of the other two quarterbacks being considered for trade: Cam Newton and Andy Dalton.

Foles was in the Bears offense with Kansas City for one season when Matt Nagy was working there under Andy Reid, and led the Eagles to their Super Bowl victory in place of Carson Wentz in the 2017 season. And, of course, he beat the Bears at Soldier Field in 2018 with help from Bears kicker Cody Parkey.

QB trade: Jacksonville is trading QB Nick Foles to Chicago for the Bears’ compensatory fourth-round pick, sources tell ESPN.

Bears’ coaches such as Matt Nagy have worked with Foles in past and know him well.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 18, 2020

Foles has only seven more starts in his career than Trubisky, and has played eight seasons to Trubisky's three. His worst season in the league other than a rookie year when he started six games was probably the Super Bowl year when he had a passer rating of 79.5 replacing injured Carson Wentz. But he heated up in postseason and lead coach Doug Pederson's team to the Lombardi Trophy.

In eight seasons Foles has an 88.2 passer rating and has averaged 7.0 yards per pass attempt. He has completed 61.9% of passes.

While with the Eagles, Foles was under current Bears quarterbacks coach John DeFilippo, and then worked under him last year when DeFilippo was offensive coordinator in Jacksonville.

Foles' stint with the Jaguars didn't go as expected. He suffered broken left clavicle, went to the bench, came back but lost his job to Gardner Minshew. And all this happened after he signed an $88 million contract.

The cash concern from that deal for the Bears isn't great. Foles' salary is $15.125 million this year. There was an out in the deal after the 2020 season, so the Bears can restructure it to fit their situation.

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