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.
Minor NFL Transactions: 3/17/20
We don’t dance now; we make minor moves.
Detroit Lions
- Waived: QB Kyle Sloter
Jacksonville Jaguars
- Released: TE Geoff Swaim
New England Patriots
- Re-signed: LB Keionta Davis
Philadelphia Eagles
- Re-signed: DT Hassan Ridgeway
Pittsburgh Steelers
- Re-signed: LS Kameron Canaday
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
- Signed: TE Antony Auclair
Jaguars To Sign CB Darqueze Dennard
While the Jaguars have work to do at cornerback after trading Jalen Ramsey and A.J. Bouye, they added a role player at the position on Tuesday.
Former first-round Bengals pick Darqueze Dennard agreed to terms with the Jaguars, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com reports (on Twitter). Dennard signed a one-year Bengals pact last year but will move on after six seasons in Cincinnati.
Going into his age-29 season, Dennard served as the Bengals’ primary slot cornerback over the past several seasons. A knee injury limited him last year, however, with an offeseason procedure delaying his start to the season. He played in nine games for the 2-14 Bengals in 2019. In those nine contests, however, Dennard graded as Pro Football Focus’ No. 21 overall corner.
Dennard joins fellow ex-first-rounder D.J. Hayden and third-year UDFA Tre Herndon as Jacksonville’s primary corners. Hayden played well in the slot for the Jags last season, however, so the team may need to sort out its cornerback configuration for the 2020 season. The Jaguars are almost certainly not done adding to this position group and should be expected to be players for early-round corners.
Jaguars To Sign Joe Schobert To ~$54MM Deal
The Jaguars have agreed to sign linebacker Joe Schobert to a five-year, $53.75MM deal, according to NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport (on Twitter). The pact will pay him an average of $10.75MM per season with $22.5MM guaranteed. 
Schobert moves from the Browns to the Jaguars, where he’ll try to help the front seven fill the gap left by the Calais Campbell trade. He won’t directly boost the edge rush in Campbell’s absence, but he’ll help to anchor the LB group and work against the run.
The two sides discussed an extension in November, but things cooled off as the season wore on. There was a bit of hope for a new deal when new GM Andrew Berry replaced John Dorsey, but they still weren’t able to bridge the gap. At the combine, the Browns informed Schobert’s rep that they would not offer the “double-digit millions” he was seeking in annual salary. Schobert, clearly, was able to get that money elsewhere.
The Wisconsin product has been a solid starter since entering the league as a fourth-round in 2016. Schobert made the Pro Bowl in 2017 and started all 16 games this past year, racking up 133 tackles, four interceptions, two sacks, and nine passes defended.
Jaguars Use Second-Round Tender On Keelan Cole
The Jaguars have applied the second-round tender to wide receiver Keelan Cole, as Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets. Cole was set for restricted free agency and the Jaguars hope that the tender level will ward off suitors.
In his three pro seasons with the Jaguars, Cole has hauled in 104 catches for 1,600 yards and seven touchdowns. Teams will have interest in him, of course, but they’ll also have to think long and hard about the total price tag. If a team signs Cole to an offer sheet and the Jaguars do not match it, they’ll have to cough up a second-round pick. Given the abundance of quality receivers in this year’s draft, it seems likely that those clubs would take a pass.
Cole signed with the Jags as an undrafted free agent back in 2017. He played his college ball at a tiny D2 school Kentucky Wesleyan, and has turned into a nice success story. He only made $645K last year as part of his rookie UDFA deal, so this will be a pretty nice pay-bump for him as the second-round tender is slated to clock in at a little over $3.1MM for 2020.
The tender is somewhat surprising considering Cole’s production has actually declined a bit each year. He had 748 yards as a rookie, 491 as a sophomore, and 361 this past year. His role did increase down the stretch this past season, but he still figures to be behind at least DJ Chark, Dede Westbrook, and Chris Conley on the depth chart next year.
Bears Interested In Nick Foles?
Michael Lombardi of The Athletic reports that a source informed him that the Bears are attempting to make a deal to acquire quarterback Nick Foles from the Jaguars. Jacksonville inked Foles last offseason to a massive four-year, $88MM deal following Foles’ tenure with the Eagles. Following Lombardi’s report, Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports added that there was a lot of buzz at the combine tying Foles to Chicago as well.
Unfortunately for Foles, in his first game with his new team, he broke his left clavicle and while he was out recovering from the injury, rookie Gardner Minshew showed flashes of competence under center. Since Minshew remains on a long-term, rookie-scale, contract, the rebuilding Jaguars may very well prefer the added cap flexibility and youth that moving forward with Minshew would provide.
The Bears have well-documented concerns at quarterback surrounding Mitchell Trubisky. The second overall pick in the 2017 NFL Draft showed promise early in his career in Chicago, but as the talent surrounding him has dissipated, he has not improved enough to help the team make up for the shortcomings. While it remains to be seen whether the Bears are fully ready to move on from Trubisky, it’s clear they need to at least bring in some competition.
Ravens Finalize New Deal With Calais Campbell
The Ravens have a new two-year deal worth up to $27MM, including $20MM guaranteed, with recently acquired defensive lineman Calais Campbell, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com.
Baltimore acquired Campbell for a fifth-round pick from the Jaguars earlier Sunday. Unloading the $15MM cap hit on Campbell’s contract seemed to be the only plausible motive for Jacksonville to move a player of Campbell’s caliber for such a minuscule return. However, the Ravens appear to be lowering that cap number in exchange for some longer-term guarantees.
Campbell has consistently ranked among the best defensive lineman in football over his 12-year career. While Campbell will turn 34 in September, he has yet to show his age much on the field. In fact, Campbell ranked as the second-highest graded edge defender by Pro Football Focus out of the 107 qualified players. Per more traditional metrics, Campbell recorded 56 combined tackles, 10 tackles for loss, and 6.5 sacks.
Not only has Baltimore acquired a difference-maker for their defensive front without sacrificing much draft capital, they now have secured his services for an additional season.
Jaguars To Trade Calais Campbell To Ravens
The Jaguars and Ravens have agreed to a trade that will send veteran DE Calais Campbell from Jacksonville to Baltimore in exchange for a fifth-round pick, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter (via Twitter). The Ravens will try to work out an extension with Campbell.
The extension aspect of this is critical, as Baltimore does not have a ton of cap space, and Pro Football Talk tweets that the Ravens will be taking on the full $15MM owed to Campbell in 2020. An extension for the 33-year-old will obviously help to spread out Campbell’s cap charge, as would a long-term deal for the recently franchised Matt Judon.
From an on-field perspective, the trade makes plenty of sense for Baltimore. Pass rusher was perhaps the top item on the team’s offseason priority list, but almost all of this year’s top edge defenders who are eligible for free agency are expected to remain with their current teams. So GM Eric DeCosta got creative, and while the Ravens will be left without a fifth-rounder in the 2020 draft, they still have two third-rounders and three fourth-rounders to work with.
Campbell, the reigning Walter Payton Man of the Year, earned Pro Bowl nods in each of his three seasons with the Jags, and though his sack total dipped to 6.5 in 2019 after posting double-digits in 2017 and 2018, he still graded out as the third-best edge defender in the league last year, per Pro Football Focus’ advanced metrics. He is stout against the pass and run, and his ability to collapse the pocket should only create more opportunities for Judon and promising second-year talent Jaylon Ferguson.
The Jags, meanwhile, have recently parted with two formerly prized FA acquisitions in Campbell and corner A.J. Bouye. Both players were key members of Jacksonville’s run to the AFC Championship Game in 2017, but the Jags are clearly in rebuild mode. In addition to the $15MM of cap space created by this move, Jacksonville now has 11 draft picks in 2020 and nine in 2021, including two first-rounders.
Jaguars Franchise DE Yannick Ngakoue
Another long-rumored franchise tag candidate received that designation Friday. The Jaguars will apply their top tag to Yannick Ngakoue, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets. Teams have until 10:59am CT to apply tags.
Ngakoue profiles as this year’s most logical tag-and-trade candidate, however. Ngakoue has said he no longer wants to play in Jacksonville. But for now, the would-have-been free agent defensive end will be tagged at $17.8MM.
Ngakoue skipped the Jags’ offseason program last year while angling for a new contract but reported for training camp. Of the edge rushers who have been tagged or are expected to be tagged, the soon-to-be 25-year-old edge rusher has displayed the most consistency. The 2016 third-round pick has posted at least eight sacks in all four of his seasons, topping out with 12 to go with six forced fumbles in the Jags’ 2017 “Sacksonville” season.
“The Jaguars are aware I no longer have interest in signing a long term contract in Jacksonville,” Ngakoue tweeted. “Duval, I love you and gave you guys everything I got. I’m thankful for the journey and look forward to continuing my career elsewhere.”
Should the Jags entertain the prospect of trading another of their acclaimed 2016 draftees, interest will surely emerge. The Seahawks have already surfaced as a potential Ngakoue suitor, and they executed two tag-and-trade deals in 2019. Ngakoue joins Matt Judon and Bud Dupree as this year’s crop of edge rushers who could be tagged and then dealt.
This Date In Transactions History: Jaguars Sign Calais Campbell
Three years ago today, the Jaguars landed one of the top defensive free agents on the market. Defensive end Calais Campbell agreed to a four-year, $60MM deal with the club, bringing even more power to the Jaguars’ potent front seven. 
Campbell was thought to be on the radar for a number of clubs in this cycle, including the Titans, Broncos, Colts, Bears, and Redskins (the reported runners-up). The Cardinals, ideally, would have liked to keep him, but the numbers crunch of the offseason made that nearly impossible. Besides, they traded for Chandler Jones one year prior, making Campbell something of a luxury rather than a must-keep player.
Campbell may have been motivated by the Jones acquisition – in his walk year, the 6’8″, 300-pound force tallied eight sacks en route to his second career Pro Bowl appearance. He also entered the market with a proven record of getting to the quarterback: He registered 56.5 sacks over the course of nine seasons in Arizona, a total that’s even more impressive when you consider that he had zero sacks as a rookie in 2008.
This Jaguars front office was not shy about spending on the defensive front and they did it again with Campbell, even though he was entering his age-31 campaign. Presumably, they placed the high bid on the veteran, and it paid off. Campbell logged a career-high 14.5 sacks in his first season with the Jaguars and earned First-Team All-Pro honors for the first time. In the last two seasons, he’s been a Pro Bowler with a combined 17 sacks in that stretch.
Now, the Jaguars have some decisions to make. This year, he’s entering his age-34 season with a projected cap hit of $17.5MM. The Jaguars could save upwards of $15MM by cutting ties, though it would be in their best interest to hammer out an extension that would smooth out his cap hit. With a new deal, the Jaguars can free some some extra dollars to be spent later this month and potentially lock down Campbell for the rest of his career.