Nick Foles Moving on Again, This Time to Chicago
Move over Tom Brady, Nick Foles is interrupting your domination of all the NFL talk on Wednesday, the third day of NFL free agency.
Foles is returning to the site of his last win as a starting quarterback. It’s a trivia question, of sorts, because the answer isn’t Philly.
It’s Chicago.
The Bears traded a compensatory fourth-round pick to Jacksonville to acquire Foles. The Jaguars still have 12 picks in April’s draft.
Foles outdueled Brady in Super Bowl LII, delivering the Eagles their first Super Bowl championship in 2017 and earning MVP honors.
Brady hogged the majority of coverage most of Wednesday when he opted to leave New England after 20 years and go to Tampa Bay.
Now comes Foles, whose last win was the double-doink game, when Bears field goal kicker Cody Parkey missed a potential game-winning field goal in the 2018 wild-card game, the ball hitting off the upright then the cross bar but not going through. The Eagles ended up winning, 16-15, to send them to New Orleans in the 2018 playoffs.
The Eagles lost the following week to the Saints and that was the final game Foles played as an Eagle.
He made 32 starts for them over two different stints with the organization and went 21-11 in the regular season and 4-2 in the playoffs, including a 3-0 postseason record in winning the Super Bowl.
Foles left for the Jaguars last offseason as a free agent, signing a four-year $88 million contract with $50.1 million guaranteed.
Jacksonville gave him $45 million of that when he signed, and what did they get from Foles?
He got hurt early in the season, returned, but was ineffective. Foles went 0-4 with three touchdowns and two interceptions before losing his job to sixth-round rookie pick Gardner Minshew.
Foles has restructured his contract with the Bears, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter. The QB will still have three years and $21 million guaranteed left, but he now has the ability to void the deal after either of the first two years depending on his performance.
He has never been able to duplicate his performances with the Eagles outside of Philly.
Foles began his career as a third-round draft pick of the Eagles in 2012. In 2013, he guided the Eagles to the postseason after a regular season in which he threw 27 touchdowns two picks.
Midway through the 2014 season, Foles was injured and placed on Injured Reserve and did not return. He was then traded to St. Louis, who was still the home to the Rams at the time. Things did not work out there and he was released.
After contemplating retirement, Andy Reid convinced him to return and Foles went to Kansas City to backup Alex Smith.
The Eagles signed him as a free agent in 2017 and Foles took the team on its Super Bowl run.
In Chicago, he will likely compete with Mitchell Trubisky to be the starter.
Foles will be reunited with three former coaches he had in Philly: head coach Matt Nagy, offensive coordinator Bill Lazor, and quarterbacks coach John DeFilippo.
The quarterback will also be reunited again with tight end Trey Burton, who threw Foles that Super Bowl touchdown that made history and came to be known as the Philly Special.
The Bears can only hope that Foles can prove to be as special in Chicago as he was in Philly.
