Chicago Bears Rumors: Nick Foles put stop to potential Eagles trade

Over the offseason, the Chicago Bears’ primary focus has been on the quarterback position.

For weeks on end, there were rumors of the Bears going after certain veteran quarterbacks via trade, or potentially in free agency, and no rumor was bigger than the Russell Wilson sage.

In the end, Chicago general manager Ryan Pace opted to trade up in the draft and grab Justin Fields — elating Bears fans everywhere.

But then, questions about the rest of the quarterback room began to populate. Almost immediately, both Pace and Matt Nagy came out and said how they still planned to start Andy Dalton. But there was another quarterback folks had questions about, too.

The Chicago Bears and Nick Foles are an odd marriage at this point, but for some reason, a trade didn’t go down.

With Nick Foles in Chicago still, the Bears have a crowded quarterback room. Not only is Dalton there, but another veteran like Foles blurs the picture. By the time training camp wraps up, though, there will be no blurring to work through. It’s going to be Fields’ job one way or another, and the other guys will be riding the bench.

Yet, wouldn’t it have made sense for the Bears to trade Foles?

Yes, it would have — however, Foles didn’t want it to happen.

According to NFL insider Tyler Dunne, the Bears attempted to trade Foles to the Eagles. However, Foles did not want to go back to Philadelphia. Therefore, the Eagles opted not to trade for him due to the fact that he wouldn’t have reported anyways.

The Eagles also signed veteran Joe Flacco instead, so a Foles trade is pretty much dead in the water at this point.

Foles is going to be a Bear for 2021, and count roughly $6.7 million against the cap as the team’s third string quarterback. Dalton, meanwhile, is making $10 million to be an eventual backup.

What a wild monetary situation for a team’s second and third string quarterbacks — oh yes, you read that right. Again, Fields is going to start sooner than later. He will get the nod no later than Week 4; you can book it.

For the time being, Chicago will just be stuck with two veterans behind Fields for the majority of this coming season. Next year, the team can get out of Foles’ deal but still have a dead cap hit of over $7 million. Chances are, they cut Foles and eat the money.

If the Bears were to cut Foles right now, they would eat over $14 million in dead money — so it’s not happening. The team will simply have to ride with a trio in the quarterback room for the first time in a while. But, it’ll all be worth it if Fields pans out.