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It’s no secret the Chicago Bears are open to trading Nick Foles — but the former Super Bowl MVP seems to have a degree of control over his own fate many fans and analysts are struggling to understand.
Bears head coach Matt Nagy has been asked about the trade speculation surrounding his team’s third-string quarterback, and he said this on July 31:
“Absolutely. You’re talking about a Super Bowl MVP and a guy that’s started a lot of games. He’s had a really interesting career in so many ways that I just think he deserves that. I mean, anybody that’s had the career he has is somebody that’s always going to be — for all teams, as a third-string guy — teams are going to look at guys like him.”
Foles is set to earn a base salary of $4 million this season, and his contract has a cap hit of $6,666,666 and a dead cap value of $14,333,334, per Spotrac. The veteran quarterback doesn’t have a no-trade clause, but he may as well, if the most recent report courtesy of Albert Breer has any truth to it.
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Breer: Bears Are Listening to Trade Proposals for Foles
In his August 30 MMQB column for Sports Illustrated, Albert Breer reported that “The Bears will listen on Nick Foles, but I’ve also long gotten the sense they aren’t going to send him somewhere he doesn’t want to go.”
While news like this also reeks of other teams having very little interest in him, Ty Dunne of Go Long reported earlier this year that Foles had rejected a trade to his former team, the Philadelphia Eagles, and the Super Bowl MVP said he’d prefer to be traded to a place he’s comfortable in early August.
But why are the Bears giving their third-string quarterback so much power? Twitter certainly had a few things to say about it, with many noting the Bears were currently being “held hostage” by Foles:
As analyst Johnathan Wood points out, the Bears will have to take whatever they’re offered — if offered anything at all — which would likely only be a seventh-round pick:
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Foles’ Preseason Performance Didn’t Hurt His Trade Value
Sure, it was with and against third-stringers, but Foles went out with a bang in Chicago’s final preseason contest against the Tennessee Titans, completing 10 of 13 passes for 142 yards and two touchdowns. He finished the game with a rating of 151.3. Whether it was a performance that will entice any teams to pick up his contract is another question.
“I was really excited for the way that he came in and played,” Nagy said on August 30 about Foles’ final preseason performance.
“I thought, regardless of where he played in the game and who he played with and who he played against, he ran the offense efficiently. There were times where they brought Cover-0 and he got rid of the ball. … Twice they did it, they popped a zero on us, and he didn’t get hit because he knew where to go with the football. What a great teaching tool to be able to show these other guys, hey, within this offense you better get your eyes back and look. … So to be able to help those guys out, I think it’s good and it was great for Nick.”
Having a sage vet around to advise rookie Justin Fields would be valuable, but it’s certainly not worth what the Bears are paying their third-string QB. Considering he carries another $10.6 million cap hit in 2022, if anyone calls, the Bears should listen, whether the team has Foles’ stamp of approval, or not.
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