Column: Nick Foles has a proven track record of being a calm and steady rescue artist. And isn’t that exactly what the Bears need?
If you have the stomach for it, Chicago, it takes only 10 minutes. Cue up the late stages of the NFC wild-card-round game at Soldier Field on Jan. 6, 2019. Bears ahead 15-10, less than 5 minutes remaining.
An energized crowd and an eager city are feeling the buzz of what could be the Bears' first playoff win since January 2011.
What an exhilarating season 2018 had been. And now, on this winter evening, with this long-awaited return to postseason football, imaginations are quickly shifting into fast-forward.
Still, as the Eagles take possession at their 40-yard line against a defense that led the NFL in takeaways and the NFC in sacks, the belief in the visitors' huddle is swelling.
The quarterback in command, Nick Foles, has earned that trust — and a nickname in Philadelphia, with associated hashtag, that can't be printed in a family publication such as this — by proving himself as a reliable rescue expert time and again.
Now here he is in another pressure-packed moment with a new and urgent call to action. Over the next 3 minutes, 52 seconds, in a series of 12 plays, Foles operates with the equanimity of a surgeon. One thing at a time. Laser focus. All distractions blocked out.
The drive starts with a 15-yard completion to Alshon Jeffery, a play-action dart over the middle squeezed between a trio of Bears defenders. It ends with a 2-yard touchdown pass to Golden Tate, as precise as it is decisive.
Foles throws nine passes in all, completing six. That final one to Tate — on fourth-and-goal from the 2 as the clock ticks under a minute to play — is a winning throw made with winning vision before the snap.
The Eagles surge ahead 16-15.
You can cut the video there and save yourself further anguish from the sound of leather hitting metal twice. But you should notice Foles' contagious calm, his steady hand, his trust in his teammates and himself.
No wonder the folks at Halas Hall were willing to make their bold dice roll Wednesday, trading a fourth-round pick to the Jaguars to bring Foles to Lake Forest.
The Bears need a rescue artist. They no longer can operate with unwavering belief that Mitch Trubisky's developmental breakthrough is around the corner. They need options. Competition. A possible replacement.
Trubisky is the incumbent starter, nudged into this offseason with votes of confidence from general manager Ryan Pace but also demands from coach Matt Nagy that he become "a master at understanding coverages." His grip on the starting role is far from firm, and his coach's patience is running thin.
Now Foles' arrival changes the dynamic.
Foles has proved himself to be both a trusty backup and, in some very important moments, a clutch starter. He has earned respect across the league for his steadiness.
Six days before that playoff game 14 months ago, Nagy expressed his admiration for Foles.
"Nick is as good of a human being as you will find," Nagy said. "You want to talk about people who do things the right way. He's somebody who cares about others, somebody who just wants to play for the love of the game. … He's a very confident kid in the huddle. He knows where he's going with the football. And he's a playmaker."
That following Sunday, as the Eagles left Soldier Field, packing Chicago's ripped-out heart into their equipment crates, the endorsements continued.
"We've got a quarterback who just wants to live in the now," Tate said.
Added tight end Zach Ertz: "He never tries to do too much. He tries to stay within himself on every play. The moment is never too big for him, and he just emanates that calm and positive attitude."
As the Bears considered a multitude of candidates to bring into their quarterbacks room, a list that also included Andy Dalton and Teddy Bridgewater, Nagy had more than that playoff loss to reflect on. He spent time with Foles in 2012 with the Eagles and four seasons later with the Chiefs.
New Bears offensive coordinator Bill Lazor was Foles' quarterbacks coach with the Eagles in 2013, the year Foles took over for an injured Michael Vick in October and threw 27 touchdown passes with only two interceptions.
New Bears quarterbacks coach John DeFilippo was in that same role overseeing Foles with the Eagles in 2016 and 2017, then was his offensive coordinator last year in Jacksonville.
That 2017 season, of course, was the fairy tale, the year Foles saved the Eagles' season. After franchise quarterback Carson Wentz went down with a season-ending ACL tear in December, Foles jumped in and stayed steady. Then he carried the Eagles through the playoffs, one big victory at a time.
If those work-from-home coronavirus edicts afford you more than the aforementioned 10 minutes of leisure time, take Super Bowl LII for a spin. That night in Minneapolis, Foles went 28-for-43 for 373 yards and three touchdowns. He added a 1-yard touchdown catch on "Philly Special" in a 41-33 win over the Patriots.
He toppled Tom Brady and Bill Belichick, collected a Super Bowl MVP trophy and became a legend.
Ten months later, after another Wentz injury, he carried the Eagles from below .500 in mid-December to 9-7 and a wild-card berth. Then he persevered through an otherwise bumpy day at Soldier Field with a game-winning drive.
For whatever it's worth, Foles' four playoff victories as a starter are more than the collective total of the last 29 Bears starting quarterbacks.
There are no promises the trade for Foles will prove successful. The Jaguars were eager to deal the 31-year-old quarterback barely a year after guaranteeing him $50 million in a four-year contract in free agency.
A broken collarbone in the season opener followed by three ho-hum starts late in the season convinced the Jaguars to go in a new direction with Gardner Minshew. Foles also had uneven starting stints with the Eagles in 2014 and the Rams in 2015, so turbulent, in fact, that he found himself seriously considering retirement.
Skeptics aren't wrong to wonder whether Foles is capable of being a long-term starter or whether he is better suited for a supporting role.
It's possible Foles could become the next quarterback sucked into the black hole of futility in Chicago. He seems destined to get an opportunity to play at some point — perhaps as soon as Week 1. And even in an offense he knows well, working with a coaching staff he has great comfort and chemistry with, he might be incapable of elevating the Bears' bottom-tier offense to a championship level.
But beggars can't be choosers either. And the Bears absolutely needed to do something to shake up their quarterbacks room and truly press Trubisky. On Wednesday, they finally took the big swing to do so.
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