Bears couldn’t even unload Nick Foles on the Eagles

The Chicago Bears want to unload Nick Foles, but even the Philadelphia Eagles wouldn’t take him.

Last offseason, the Chicago Bears did the Jacksonville Jaguars a favor by trading for Nick Foles a year into a bloated contract. They’d like to find someone to do them the same favor this offseason. But according to NFL insider Adam Caplan, the Bears tried to trade Foles to the Philadelphia Eagles and other teams with no success.

With their signing of Andy Dalton and their trade up to get Justin Fields in the draft, Foles has become an expensive No. 3 quarterback for the Bears. A contract restructuring made his money less penal than it would have been under his original deal with Jacksonville, but Foles is still due $9 million in total guaranteed money over the next two years. There is some intangible value Foles can bring to a quarterback room, including Chicago’s, but that only goes so far.

Even the Eagles didn’t want Nick Foles

Around two separate stints with the Eagles, Foles has been a thoroughly mediocre quarterback. A playoff run in 2017 after Carson Wentz went down with a torn ACL yielded the first Super Bowl win in the Eagles’ history, and Foles was named MVP of Super Bowl LII.

The Eagles traded Wentz this offseason, and they’re committed to Jalen Hurts as their starting quarterback for 2021. Their signing of Joe Flacco took them out of the market for a veteran backup, a spot where Foles could have fit. Cap considerations were surely a factor for Philadelphia in having no interest in trading for Foles, apart from his talent level.

Designating Foles as a post-June 1 cut would still leave behind a chunk of dead money for the Bears ($7.66 million, according to Over The Cap) with no cap savings. So at this point they are left to hope another team loses a quarterback to a notable injury between now and Week 1, and a trade possibility opens up.