Can the Bears trade this player?
An interesting case for the upcoming weeks in Chicago is the one of Nick Foles. He has played for the Bears for two seasons now. He has a win-loss record of 3-5 as a starter. At the start of 2020, Foles signed a 3-year contract worth $24,000,000. He now has one year left on his contract and his cap hit for 2020 is $10,666,667.
Obviously, Foles has not been great for the Bears and he is, without a doubt, not a part of the future in Chicago. Foles was not even the second-string quarterback last season. He was also behind Andy Dalton. All of these ingredients make for one of the worst contracts on the Chicago Bears' roster in 2022. The question that is worth asking is: what can you do with him?
The first scenario is you simply keep him as a backup. He has a lot of experience, he would be a capable safety net. However, paying over $10 million per year for a reserve is not the best move for your franchise. But, there is a case to be made that you should have a backup quarterback that plays the same type of football as your starter. If you can achieve that, you won't have to change the game plan if you switch QB. A great example of that was with the Baltimore Ravens last year. When Lamar Jackson got hurt, Tyler Huntley stepped in and he played excellent in the same scheme.
The second option would be to cut Nick Foles. If they do that, the Bears would free up $3 million in cap space. This also means that they would have to pay over $7 million in dead cap. That is not ideal but, it is a possible scenario in my mind.
Finally, the dream scenario is that you find a team willing to trade for Nick Foles. That will probably be going to depend on the health of the QB rooms from the other 31 teams. The bears would not get a lot in return but they would be able to free up around $7,8 million in cap space. This would be an amazing move for Ryan Poles. Getting back something like a 6th or 7th rounder for Foles would go a long way for the Chicago bears.
