With offseason practice threatened, familiarity favors Bears QB Nick Foles

Matt Nagy knew Nick Foles so well that he picked the quarterback up from Kansas City International Airport when the Chiefs signed him in August 2016. They drove to the Nagy family house in Overland Park, Kan., and played with the coach’s kids. Nagy eventually loaned Foles his car for the rest of training camp.

“He put my backrest back too far,” the Bears head coach joked in December 2018.

As the Bears were preparing to play the Eagles in the playoffs, Nagy called Foles “as good of a human being as you will find,” and “somebody who cares about others, somebody who just wants to play for the love of the game.”

That familiarity is one reason — but not the only one — the Bears traded the Jaguars a fourth-round pick (No. 140 overall) for Foles on Wednesday. The 31-year-old will push the struggling Mitch Trubisky, if not take his starting job.

The Bears immediately restructured the four-year, $88 million albatross contract Foles signed with the Jaguars a year ago. The Bears still owe him $21 million guaranteed, ESPN reported, though Foles has the ability to void the deal after the end of the 2020 or 2021 seasons.

Foles knows Nagy’s playbook, members of the coaching staff and how to handle his role, be it as a starter or a backup. That’s critical this offseason, under the shadow of social distancing measures taken to slow the coronavirus.

There’s a real chance players might not gather together for the first time until training camp in July. Monday, the NFL said offseason programs would not begin, as planned, in April. Team facilities are closed to players, except for those rehabbing with medical officials, for at least two weeks. Draft prospects and free agents aren’t allowed in.

Whenever the team is allowed to gather again — in the best of situations, it would likely be for a truncated period in May or June — Foles won’t be starting from scratch, like other available quarterbacks. He’s played in Nagy’s offense — and in Doug Pederson’s Eagles scheme, which is the most similar one in the NFL.

He already knows the Bears’ offensive brain trust. New coordinator Bill Lazor was Foles’ position coach in 2013, when he led the league with a 119.2 passer rating and went 8-2.

Quarterbacks coach John DeFilippo served the same role in 2017, when Foles infamously took over for an injured Carson Wentz in December and led the Eagles to a Super Bowl title. Foles was named Super Bowl MVP in the 41-33 win against the Patriots after catching a touchdown on “Philly Special,” a trick play, thrown by future Bears tight end Trey Burton.

Bears offensive line coach/de facto run game coordinator Juan Castillo was, strangely, Philadelphia’s defensive coordinator during Foles’ rookie year. Nagy was the offensive quality control coach that season, and then quarterbacks coach for Foles’ Chiefs in 2016.

General manager Ryan Pace and Nagy will not speak about Foles until the deal is official, a process slowed by players being unable to travel for physicals. It will be telling to see whether they crown Foles the starter or declare an open competition.

Worth considering: Foles is the greatest backup quarterback in modern NFL history — but only a strong starter in spurts. He hasn’t started more than five games since 2015. After signing the monster contract to start last year, he broke his collarbone in the Jaguars opener. He returned for three games, totaling 736 passing yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions.

Foles filled in for an injured Wentz in 2018, going 4-1 to close the Eagles’ regular season. Against the Bears in the first round of the playoffs, Foles threw a two-yard, fourth-down touchdown with less than a minute left to take the lead. Foles celebrated when Cody Parkey double-doinked the game-winning kick at Soldier Field.

He hasn’t won a game since.