Jaguars ship Nick Foles to Bears, one year after signing him to $88m deal
The Jacksonville Jaguars are trying to mitigate one of the costliest mistakes in franchise history.
A person familiar with the trade told the Associated Press that the Jaguars have agreed to send quarterback Nick Foles to the Chicago Bears for a compensatory fourth-round draft pick, No 140 overall.
The Jaguars are dumping Foles a little more than a year after giving the 2018 Super Bowl MVP a four-year, $88m contract that included $50.125m guaranteed. The Bears are getting a veteran starter to compete with Mitchell Trubisky, who struggled in his third season.
Foles is due to make $15.125m in 2020 and would have counted $21.837m against Jacksonville’s salary cap. Dealing him will still be costly for the Jaguars they will take on $18.75m in dead money this fall but it will free up about $35m over the next two years. Jacksonville saves a little more than $3m in 2020 by trading him.
Jaguars 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 31-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 sixthround draft pick from Washington State, played well enough in Foles’s absence to make Caldwell and Marrone believe he’s got more upside as a start
er moving forward. It also made Foles expendable.
Bears general manager Ryan Pace had said the team remains committed to Trubisky despite his regression in 2019. Pace largely tied his reputation to Trubisky by trading up a spot with San Francisco to draft him with the No2 overall pick in 2017, ahead of Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes and Houston’s Deshaun Watson. While Mahomes and Watson have emerged as two of the best quarterbacks in the league, Trubisky has mixed some promising flashes with poor decisions and throws.
The Bears were hoping he would take a big step last season his second in coach Matt Nagys system but that did not happen. His yards (3,138), completion rate (63.2%), touchdowns (17) and rating (83) all dropped from the previous year.
Lions sign DT Danny Shelton
The Detroit Lions have agreed to a two-year, $8m deal with defensive tackle Danny Shelton.
Agent Drew Rosenhaus confirmed the deal on Wednesday. Shelton started 14 games last season for the New England Patriots. He had three sacks and a forced fumble. Shelton has played five NFL seasons – three with Cleveland and two with the Patriots.
Detroit’s defense ranked 31st in the league last season, and defensive tackle was an area of need entering free agency. The Lions released defensive tackle Damon Harrison earlier this offseason. Shelton was a first-round draft pick by the Browns in 2015.
Broncos acquire DL Jurrell Casey
The Denver Broncos have acquired five-time Pro Bowl defensive lineman Jurrell Casey from the Tennessee Titans. Two people familiar with the trade tell The Associated Press that the Titans swapped Casey to Denver for a seventh-round draft pick.
A six-time team captain, Casey was the second longest-tenured player on the roster – he was drafted by Tennessee in the third round in 2011.
The defensive tackle has started 137 of 139 games played, though injuries kept him out of three games over the past two seasons. He tied for second with five sacks this past season and had a team-high 30 quarterback pressures. But Casey is due $11.2m this season and is under contract through 2022 with a price tag that only rises in the final two years. The Titans placed the non-exclusive rights franchise tag on NFL rushing leader Derrick Henry on Monday and could use more salary cap space to sign him to a new contract.
Tennessee also drafted Jeffery Simmons out of Mississippi State at No 19 overall last April, and the defensive tackle was able to get two sacks playing nine games in the regular season and all of the postseason despite tearing an ACL last February.