Nick Foles’ Status With Jaguars Becomes a Hot Topic on Day 1 of Legal Tampering Period, Per Reports
Whether the Jacksonville Jaguars actually trade veteran quarterback Nick Foles a year after signing him to a four-year, $88 million contract is undetermined, but multiple outlets are reporting that Foles is at least a hot topic during the first day of the legal tampering period.
First, it began when Michael Lombardi of The Athletic reported that the Chicago Bears were considering striking a deal with the Jaguars for Foles. After that, things began to snowball.
Then, Adam Schefter of ESPN gave his two cents on Foles' trade market, stating the Jaguars have been approached by teams about the quarterback for some time, but so far have not budged on dealing the former Super Bowl MVP.
Finally, Ed Werder of ESPN backed up Lombardi's initial reported and stated the Bears do in fact have an interest in trading for Foles. Whether anything pans out from this is impossible to know, but Foles' name is at least being thrown around in trade rumors more than one could have expected.
"The issue for Bears in trade discussions with Jaguars for Foles and Bengals for Dalton is compensation as team lacks a first-round pick already," Werder tweeted. "That creates reluctance to give up more than a third-day pick in this years draft. "
As we wrote in January, the Bears make a ton of sense for Foles as a landing spot following a disastrous first year in Jacksonville. It would not only give him a fresh start, but it would reunite him with former coaches and a system he is familiar with.
The Bears now have three coaches on their staff who have extensive connections to Foles. For starters, Bears' head coach Matt Nagy has a great relationship with Foles. Nagy was the Kansas City Chiefs' offensive coordinator in 2016 when Foles was Kansas City's backup quarterback. Foles notably considered retirement after the 2015 season, but his year in Kansas City helped him rejuvenate his career and Nagy was instrumental in this.
Secondly, the Bears' offensive coordinator is Bill Lazor, who was Foles' quarterbacks coach with the Eagles in 2013, Foles' best entire season as a starter. Foles threw 27 touchdowns and only two interceptions that year, and Lazor's work with him played a notable part in it.
Finally, there is John DeFilippo, the Bears' current quarterbacks coach. DeFilippo was the Jaguars' offensive coordinator in 2019, but his history with Foles goes deeper than that. DeFilippo was Foles' positional coach with the Philadelphia Eagles during the Eagles' 2017 Super Bowl run, and the presence of DeFilippo was instrumental in the Jaguars' pursuit of Foles, with the former play-caller designing his entire playbook around Foles due to his past with the passer.
Of course, the Bears would need to find a way to make a deal work in terms of draft compensation. The Bears currently have two second-round selections (No. 43, No. 50), but have zero first- or third-round picks.
There is also the major deciding factor that is Foles' contract. Foles has a cap hit of $21,875,000 in 2020, and a pre-June 1st trade of Foles would equate the Jaguars paying $18,750,000 in dead cap, per OverTheCap. Foles also still has three years remaining on the original deal he signed with Jacksonville.
Foles' first year with the Jaguars quickly turned into an upside-down season when he injured his clavicle during the first quarter of Week 1. He then watched Gardner Minshew II light it up as a rookie as he recovered for the next eight games before returning as the starter in Week 11.
Foles' second stint as starter didn't go much better than the first, however, as he was benched in favor of Minshew at halftime of Week 13.
In four games in 2019, Foles completed 65.8% of his passes and threw for 736 yards (6.3 yards per attempt) with three touchdowns and two interceptions.
