JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Multiple reports said the Jacksonville Jaguars agreed to send quarterback Nick Foles to the Chicago Bears for a compensatory fourth-round draft pick.
The Jaguars are dumping Foles a little more than a year after giving the 2018 Super Bowl MVP a four-year, $88 million contract that included $50.125 million guaranteed.
Foles is due to make $15.125 million in 2020 and would have counted $21.837 million against Jacksonville’s salary cap. Dealing him still will be costly for the Jaguars — they will take on $18.75 million in dead money this fall — but it will free up about $35 million over the next two years. Jacksonville saves a little more than $3 million in 2020 by trading him.
General manager Dave Caldwell and coach Doug Marrone are beginning a full rebuild after the team’s 10th losing season in the last 12 years. Last March, they raved about Foles and what it meant to finally have a franchise quarterback after a decades-long search that saw Jacksonville try Byron Leftwich, David Garrard, Blaine Gabbert, Chad Henne and Blake Bortles.
But the 30-year-old Foles ended up being a bust in Jacksonville. He broke his left collarbone early in the season opener, missed the next eight games and then got benched in his third game back.
Rookie Gardner Minshew, a sixth-round draft pick from Washington State, played well enough in Foles’ absence to make Caldwell and Marrone believe he has more upside as a starter moving forward. It also made Foles expendable.
