The Chicago Bears quarterback situation isn’t what one would call ideal. Mitch Trubisky, after three weeks of inconsistent play, once again found himself nursing a shoulder injury after playing the Minnesota Vikings at home. Now he’s dealing with a partially torn labrum. Luckily he won’t require surgery but it’s apparent that this situation does nothing to help the Bears at their most important position. They have no answers. Is he the guy or not?
Knowledge of the team is growing by the day. Chicago has the best defense in the NFL. They have talented weapons across the board. What they don’t have is a triggerman who can take proper advantage of them. It’s apparent to everybody that this team is a quarterback away from a championship. All too familiar territory for this organization. What they can’t say for certain is whether Trubisky is or will be the guy to get them over the hump.
Odds are he’ll have nine games left coming out of the bye week to deliver an answer, one way or another. So here’s the crux of the issue. What if it’s not the answer the Bears are hoping for? The team doesn’t exactly have the resources to go hunting for a solution in the 2020 draft given their lack of a 1st round pick. Free agency might offer options but few rays of hope. This might leave only the trade market. So if compelled to make a move, is there anybody they can get without breaking the bank?
There just might be.
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Nick Foles could be Chicago Bears quarterback answer
Some people might roll their eyes at the idea of Nick Foles. They shouldn’t. Is he an elite quarterback? No. That doesn’t mean he’s not an effective one. Especially when he gets to play in the type of offense the Bears run. Between 2016 and 2018, Foles started a total of 14 games for the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles. He completed 67% of his passes for 3,798 yards, 24 touchdowns, and 11 interceptions. Five of those games were in the playoffs including the Super Bowl, which he won MVP honors for.
He’s only 30-years old on top of that. So there’s plenty of tread left on the tires. The big questions come down to two things. The first? Availability. Foles just signed a four-year deal with the Jacksonville Jaguars this past March. One would think there’s no way the team would be willing to move on from him that fast. That is until Gardner Minshew came around.
The 6th round pick out of Washington State has become an overnight sensation. He’s thrown seven touchdown passes to just one interception in four games and has truly lit a fire down in Jacksonville. At this rate, it appears Foles may lose the starting job due to an ill-timed injury. While personally unfortunate for him, it could be a stroke of luck for the Bears. There’s good reason to think Jacksonville might like to move on from him, and that’s because of the second reason.
His contract.
Foles signed a four-year, $88 million deal to play for the Jaguars. Now with Minshew ascending, that looks less like a decent bargain and more like a heavy anchor weighing them down. Jacksonville is currently projected to be almost $20 million in the red at the start of next offseason. So it would make sense for them to find any way possible to unload that contract. They can’t cut him because it would burden them with over $33 million in dead money. So trade is their only hope to get even some relief.
This is where the Bears can take advantage. Not a lot of teams would be willing to deal for that contract. This means they could not only get Foles but maybe even an extra draft pick as a sweetener. Similar to what the Houston Texans did with the Cleveland Browns in the trade for Brock Osweiler. The big hurdle for Chicago will be the money. They too won’t have a lot of cap space to spare in 2020. Foles will deliver a hit just over $22 million. So GM Ryan Pace would have to find ways to free up space.
Kyle Long? Prince Amukamara? Cordarrelle Patterson? Taylor Gabriel? All may have to be sacrificed in order to make the money work. It’s an undeniable challenge, but if the Bears want a more talented version of Chase Daniel? This is their absolute best option.
