The Chicago Bears are releasing veteran quarterback Nick Foles, according to NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo.
After the Bears signed veteran Trevor Siemian to serve as starter Justin Fields’ backup, it became clear that Foles wasn’t in Chicago’s immediate plans.
Bears general manager Ryan Poles confirmed a few weeks ago that the team was actively shopping Foles, hoping to turn another failed decision from the previous regime into draft capital.
“Nothing has popped up right now, but we’re working on it,” Poles said in late March. “Hopefully something pops up.”
Unfortunately, it didn’t. And rather than continue to search for an elusive trade partner for Foles, the Bears made the decision to move on from him now.
“Ryan Poles did the classy thing and Nick appreciates it,” said Foles’ agent Justin Schulman.
The #Bears have agreed to release QB Nick Foles, his agent Justin Schulman confirmed. The team’s new regime decided to allow Foles to find his next home rather than continue to search for a trade partner. “Ryan Poles did the classy thing and Nick appreciates it,” Schulman said.
— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) May 1, 2022
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Chicago traded a fourth-round compensatory pick to the Jacksonville Jaguars for Foles back in 2020, as well as his hefty contract. The hope was Foles would be able to thrive in former head coach Matt Nagy’s offense. But that worked out the same way every other quarterback has worked out with Nagy — it simply didn’t.
While it wasn’t the best-case scenario to release Foles — as it’ll cost $7.67 million in dead money and free up just $3 million in cap space — it had to be done. Poles was not going to carry three quarterbacks on the roster like Ryan Pace did last season.