Jaguars Trade Nick Foles To Bears
The Jaguars have agreed to trade Nick Foles to the Bears, according to ESPN.com’s Adam Schefter (on Twitter). In exchange, the Bears will send a compensatory fourth-round pick to the Jags. The former Super Bowl MVP will restructure his hefty contract as part of the trade, Mike Garafolo of NFL Network tweets.
It’ll be new surroundings for Foles, but he’ll have plenty of familiar faces to help him adjust. Head coach Matt Nagy is among the staffers that have worked with him in the past, which will help with the learning curve.
The Bears have been exploring alternatives to former first-round pick Mitchell Trubisky this offseason, though they’re not necessarily out to replace him. Instead, Foles figures to serve as competition for the soon-to-be 26-year-old.
Trubisky showed plenty of promise in 2018 as he led the Bears to an 11-3 mark in 14 starts, a campaign that resulted in his first ever Pro Bowl nod. However, things got really rocky last year – Trubisky had just 17 touchdowns against ten interceptions and the Bears’ D couldn’t make up for the shortcomings. The Bears went 8-7 in Trubisky’s 15 starts and finished .500 on the season, leaving them short of the playoffs.
Chicago initially insisted after the year that they’d roll with Trubisky in 2020, but reports soon emerged that they were going to look for a veteran to push Trubisky. They’ve been connected to a number of signal-callers including Foles, Andy Dalton, and Teddy Bridgewater, and we heard Monday that they were focused on trading for either Foles or Dalton.
The Bears will take on the last three years of Foles’ contract, which pays a base value of $50M before the restructure. The Jaguars will be left with a substantial dead money hit of $18.75MM in 2020 and a mid-round pick. Jacksonville seems prepared to turn things over to Gardner Minshew, the sixth-rounder who went 6-6 last year as a rookie and finished the season with a top-10 interception rate.
Foles has had plenty of success at Soldier Field, as his last win as a starting quarterback was in Chicago in the wild card round of the playoffs two seasons ago in the infamous ‘double-doink’ game. While the Bears have insisted they aren’t giving up on Trubisky, it would be highly unusual to pay a backup quarterback as much money as Foles is getting, and it would be surprising if he doesn’t take over at some point.
Chicago now has even less draft capital, as they’ve already shipped out a bunch of picks in previous deals. They now have the 43rd and 50th overall selections in next month’s draft, but no other picks in the first four-rounds, Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune notes in a tweet breaking down all of their picks.
Panthers Release S Eric Reid
Eric Reid and the Panthers are going their separate ways. On Wednesday, the veteran safety took to Twitter to announce that he will be released by the club: 
“It’s been a pleasure Carolina! I enjoyed my time and the support I received from the fans, media, teammates, and staff there will be remembered. Looking forward to furthering my career in another city!”
The Panthers subsequently confirmed the move. This will end a two-year tenure with Carolina.
Reid, 28, hasn’t been on the open market since 2018. In that offseason, he was forced to wait until September before landing the deal. Some believe that Reid’s relationship with Colin Kaepernick and role in national anthem protests hampered his market. Others pointed to the NFL’s safety market stagnating league-wide – other notable safeties also struggled to find substantial dollars in that cycle. In truth, both were likely factors.
This time around, Reid should fare much better. Last season, Reid started in all 16 games and thrived as he was deployed in blitz action. He finished out the year with four sacks and an eye-popping 130 tackles, good for a brand new career best.
Reid was set to play out the final two years of the three-year extension he signed in February of 2019. Instead, the Panthers will drop him to save $3MM against $5MM in dead money. Per the terms of his deal, his 2020 salary would have shifted to a full guarantee on the third day of the league year had he remained on the roster.
The release comes as a surprise, though the Panthers have been in full rebuild mode all throughout the offseason. After cutting ties with head coach Ron Rivera and tight end Greg Olsen, the club kicked things into high gear this week by putting quarterback Cam Newton on the trade block.
Dolphins To Sign Ted Karras
The Dolphins have landed the Patriots’ starting center. Ted Karras will come to the Dolphins on a one-year, $4MM deal, as Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald tweets. 
The offensive line has been a major area of need for the Dolphins this offseason and they’ve moved to address it in recent days. Earlier this week, they inked Ereck Flowers to a three-year deal worth $30MM, including $19.5MM fully guaranteed – a pact reflective of the league’s dearth of quality linemen. Next, the Dolphins will have to figure out their left tackle situation and Jackson hears they’re likely to find their man in the draft.
The Patriots are hoping to have David Andrews retake his spot in the middle of the line, but that will all depend on his health. Andrews missed all of 2019 with blood clots in his lungs and has expressed optimism about being about to play in 2020.
The rumors linking the Dolphins to Tom Brady didn’t pan out, but they’ve been aggressive in March nonetheless. So far this week, they’ve signed cornerback Byron Jones, running back Jordan Howard, linebacker Kyle Van Noy, and defensive ends Shaq Lawson and Emmanuel Ogbah.
Bengals To Cut John Miller
The Bengals are releasing starting guard John Miller, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com tweets. Miller joined the team as a free agent just one year ago, but he no longer fit into their plans. 
Miller was set to play out the last two seasons on his three-year, $16.5MM deal. By dropping him, the Bengals will save $2.61MM against $2.66MM in dead money.
Last year, Miller started in 13 games for the Bengals. Previous to that, he started in 47 games for the Bills across four seasons. His tenure in Buffalo garnered mixed reviews – in 2017, he was demoted in favor of Vlad Ducasse. But, in 2018, he regained his starting gig and showed enough to land a decent payday with the Bengals. Now, he’ll look for work elsewhere.
Titans Trade Jurrell Casey To Broncos
The Broncos have landed Jurrell Casey, and it didn’t cost him much. On Wednesday, the Titans agreed to send the defensive tackle to Denver in exchange for a seventh-round pick. 
Casey is on the books for $11.85MM in 2020, with $5.45MM of that sum becoming fully guaranteed this weekend. The Titans were likely to release him, but they found a taker and a small bit of compensation instead.
Casey, 30, missed the final game of the 2018 season with a knee injury and was held out of training camp as he recovered. He passed his physical in time for 2019 and managed to appear in 14 games, all starts. Casey has been first-string for his entire Titans tenure; he has 139 career games and has started in all but two of them.
With this deal, the Broncos have added a five-time Pro Bowler to their defensive line on the cheap. Casey has 51 career sacks from the interior under his belt and an impressive track record of disruption on the line. Last year, Pro Football Focus gave him a 74.3 score – a notch below his usual work, but still good enough to place as the No. 24 ranked interior defender in the NFL.
Bears Interested In Panthers’ Cam Newton
Cam Newton is on the trading block and the Bears are among the teams with interest in him, Jonathan Jones of CBSSports.com (on Twitter) hears. The expectation is that Newton will be released by the Panthers in the coming days, but Jones notes that the Bears might not want to compete for him on the open market. Instead, they might be willing to give up something in a trade to bring the former MVP to Chicago. 
[RELATED: Cam Newton: I “Never Asked” For Panthers To Trade Me]
The Panthers announced on Tuesday that they have given Newton permission to seek a trade. Soon after, the quarterback took to Instagram to let the world know that he did not want out of Carolina.
“Stop with the word play! I never asked for it,” Newton wrote. “There is no dodging this one: I love the Panthers to death and will always love you guys! Please do not try and play me, or manipulate the narrative and act like I wanted this. You forced me into this!”
The Panthers later agreed to a sizable deal with Saints free agent Teddy Bridgewater, cementing him as the team’s new starting QB. The Bears, who are looking for alternatives to Mitchell Trubisky, were among the clubs with interest in Bridgewater up until that point. Now, their search could lead them to Newton.
Bengals To Cut B.W. Webb
The Bengals will release B.W. Webb today, according to ESPN.com’s Josina Anderson (on Twitter). The move will save the team $3.5MM against the 2020 salary cap while leaving $1MM in dead money. 
Webb joined the Bengals last year on a two-year, $10.5MM deal, but he only fetched $2.5MM in guaranteed dollars. In his lone Bengals season, Webb appeared in 15 games and started in 12 of those contests. In a difficult season full of injuries, the Bengals finished the year 2-14.
Webb, who turns 30 in May, had a stronger 2018 when he was with the Giants. In that season, he graded out as the No. 77 ranked corner in the league, according to Pro Football Focus. By those advanced metrics, he performed roughly as well as Morris Claiborne, Marcus Peters, Minkah Fitzpatrick, and Jimmy Smith.
It’s just the latest shuffling of cornerbacks for the Bengals, who added Trae Waynes and lost Darqueze Dennard to the Jaguars this week.
Weak Market For Seahawks’ Jadeveon Clowney?
Jadeveon Clowney has been disappointed by his offers thus far in free agency, NFL.com’s Mike Garafolo (Twitter link) hears. The Seahawks have made an effort to keep him and the feeling is that their offer could be the best he gets, Garafolo adds. 
It’s a surprising development, considering that many of this year’s top pass rushers have already been spoken for. Matt Judon, Yannick Ngakoue, Chris Jones, Leonard Williams, and Bud Dupree were all yanked back via the franchise tag and DeForest Buckner was shipped from the 49ers to the Colts, which should have left Clowney as the belle of the ball. Instead, his market has stagnated.
Earlier this month, the Giants and Colts were both said to have interest in Clowney, but they’ve since addressed their needs. Our best guess is that Clowney’s injury history is scaring clubs off and his asking price probably hasn’t been adjusted to factor for that. And, in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, teams might not be able to give the former No. 1 overall pick a thorough physical.
Clowney posted just three sacks in 2019, but he was still effective against opposing passers and running backs. For his work, Pro Football Focus ranked him as the 20th best edge defender in the NFL, ahead of notables such as Olivier Vernon, Vinny Curry, Von Miller, and Dupree.
Cowboys Interested In Emmanuel Sanders
The Cowboys have expressed interest in Emmanuel Sanders, according to Jane Slater of NFL.com (on Twitter). For the SMU product, it would mark a return to Texas. Meanwhile, the Cowboys would get another proven vet to help replace Randall Cobb, who has moved on to the Texans. 
Sanders, a two-time Pro Bowler, trains in Dallas in the offseason and Slater hears that the interest is mutual. Last year, Sanders was shipped from the Broncos to the 49ers midway through the season and caught 36 passes for 502 yards and three touchdowns for his new team. He was a little quieter in the playoff run to the Super Bowl with five receptions for 71 yards in the postseason.
The Cowboys re-upped Amari Cooper on a five-year, $100MM deal on Monday, meaning that he’ll return as the team’s WR1 for 2020 and beyond. The Cowboys also have receivers Michael Gallup, Devin Smith, and Cedrick Wilson under contract. Whether they sign Sanders or not, you can expect to see another notable name join the group.
Lions To Sign Danny Shelton
The Lions have agreed to sign former Patriots defensive lineman Danny Shelton, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN.com (on Twitter). It’ll be a two-year deal worth $8MM, agent Drew Rosenhaus tells Schefter.
Shelton hooked on with Rosenhaus in February, just weeks before entering unrestricted free agency. Last year, he sat on the market for a few months before re-signing with the Patriots on a one-year deal. This time around, he’s found his deal much sooner.
A better run defender than pass rusher, the 6’2″, 345-pound Shelton took on a key role for the Pats last year. He played in every regular season game and started in 14 of those contests. Overall he played around 49 percent of the defensive snaps for one of the league’s best defenses. With the Lions, he figures to serve as a key rotational piece on the interior.
The Washington product was drafted 12th overall by the Browns back in 2015. He became an instant starter in Cleveland but never quite lived up to his draft status, and was shipped to New England along with a fifth-rounder in exchange for a third-round pick before the 2018 season.
He had three sacks coming up the middle last year, and this continues a trend of Detroit and Matt Patricia picking up former Pats players after they also signed linebacker Jamie Collins earlier this week.