JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Nick Foles experiment in Jacksonville is over.
According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the Jaguars are trading Foles to the Chicago Bears for the team’s fourth-round compensatory pick, a stunning fall in just one season for Jacksonville’s quarterback of the future.
Foles was the top signal caller in the free agency Class of 2019 and Jacksonville paid him at the top of the market price, giving him an $88 million contract with $45 million guaranteed.
That deal proved onerous, the worst in franchise history. According to Spotrac, Foles will have a $15.1 million dead money charge against the Jaguars’ cap in 2020. Jacksonville now has 12 draft picks in the 2020 draft.
QB trade: Jacksonville is trading QB Nick Foles to Chicago for the Bears’ compensatory fourth-round pick, sources tell ESPN.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 18, 2020
Bears’ coaches such as Matt Nagy have worked with Foles in past and know him well.
Foles was thought to be the long-term answer for the quarterback-starved franchise, but suffered a broken collarbone in Week 1 against the Chiefs. That opened the door for rookie sixth-round pick Gardner Minshew, who proved himself to be a very capable quarterback.
News4Jax sports analyst Mark Brunell said before the trade was announced that it could be an option for a team like Chicago. The only problem was the salary cap issues that it would leave Jacksonville in.
“Bringing in a guy like Nick Foles would make sense [for the Bears], an experienced guy that’s had some success," Brunell said. “But for us, we’d be losing an experienced guy that has had some success who could be in a very good support role for Gardner Minshew.”
When Foles returned from injured reserve in Week 11 against the Colts, he was ineffective and ultimately benched at halftime in the following game against the Buccaneers.
For $45 million in guarantees at signing, Jacksonville got three touchdown passes and no wins.
According to Spotrac, the Jaguars cleared out a substantial amount of upcoming money to Foles. He was due a $5 million roster bonus for 2021 that became locked in on March 20 and a $15.6 million in salary, roster and workout bonuses.
Minshew, on the other hand, is one year in to a four-year, $2.7 million rookie contract. The Washington State product passed for 21 touchdowns and 3,271 yards as a rookie and won six games.
The #Jaguars clear $3.375M of cap space by trading Nick Foles to the #Bears. But also clear $21M of soon to be guaranteed cash. It’s incredible that they got out of this contract without having to send a draft pick along with it.
— Spotrac (@spotrac) March 18, 2020