Plenty of trades have had far-reaching consequences for the Chicago Bears over the years. The moves up for Mitch Trubisky and Justin Fields come to mind. There were the blockbusters for Jay Cutler and Khalil Mack. However, one deal that often gets overlooked is when the Bears dealt for Nick Foles in 2020. The compensation for the former Super Bowl MVP was a 4th round pick. That isn’t much, but it was still a move that didn’t make a lot of sense to people. You don’t trade picks that high for backups. It was immediately felt like the organization was looking for an excuse to replace Mitch Trubisky.
That is precisely what ended up happening, but in the most senseless way possible. Head coach Matt Nagy held a straight competition between the two in training camp, splitting reps down the middle. As a result, neither got the necessary work to prepare for the season’s start. Once Trubisky, who initially won the battle, struggled, Foles went in. It continued like that for the rest of the year. There was never any stability. If things on the surface seemed chaotic, wait until you hear what was happening behind the scenes.
According to Tyler Dunne of Go Long, the Bears hired offensive coordinator Bill Lazor to help install a system that might better suit Trubisky. Then, the trade for Foles happened. Not only did the veteran dislike Lazor’s scheme, but many in the team front office never wanted to make the trade at all. It was a move to placate Nagy, nothing more.
On Jan. 13, 2020, the Bears hired Bill Lazor as OC. His scheme was rooted in predetermined decisions more than pre-snap mind games. The goal: Play fast. In theory, Trubisky would shine in such a system. But then, into mid-March, the Bears traded a fourth-round pick for Nick Foles. In theory, he’d shine in Nagy’s offense. He’d play chess at the line of scrimmage. It didn’t matter that many people on the personnel side viewed the former Super Bowl MVP as a human piñata behind a shoddy Jacksonville Jaguars offensive line the year prior. At this point, Pace wanted Nagy to have a quarterback on the roster he believed in.
Training camp, again, proved to be a bad omen. Lazor wanted to run his offense. Foles wanted to run the KC system. Many times, Foles would try checking in and out of plays and the rest of the offense couldn’t keep up.
“We created issues for ourselves because it was like a hybrid,” Robinson says. “It created a lot of friction and a lack of identity. As opposed to — win, lose or draw — we knew our identity, where the tools were and where the bones were buried in the offense prior to that.”
GM Ryan Pace already had a reputation for bad communication with his head coach after the John Fox fiasco during the 2017 offseason. It appears he overcompensated once Nagy came to town, opting to go along with what the coach wanted rather than standing his ground when he and his scouts had reservations. Unsurprisingly, Foles’ arrival hurt the team more than it helped. It created unnecessary controversy and distractions because the Bears couldn’t pick a path. Pace wanted to give Trubisky another shot. Nagy was already done with him by the end of 2019.
It was a complete mess. Nobody should’ve been surprised when the Bears repeated the entire mess again with Andy Dalton and Justin Fields the next year. Nagy had no concept of stability and identity. He threw ideas at the wall, hoping one would stick. Nick Foles was one such idea. It is no wonder he seemed so frustrated during games and interviews. The veteran had seen dysfunctional locker rooms before. Chicago was not an experience he wanted to relive.
