Chicago Bears: Why Nick Foles trade returned best fourth-round value

Who else would you have preferred?

Looking at all other positions, not many players stand out to me on who was available when the Bears would have been picking at 140th overall. The Jaguars took Shaquille Quarterman (LB – University of Miami) with the pick the Chicago Bears sent for Nick Foles. Could the Bears use some inside linebacker depth? Sure, but adding a player like Quarterman would not make or break the success of the defense.

What about an offensive lineman? Like quarterback, not many top offensive line prospects were available at this point either. The hope would have been to see guys like Lloyd Cushenberry or Damien Lewis drop into the fourth round. The thing is, the 140th overall pick is six picks away from being a fifth-round pick. Neither of those guys were falling that far and both were drafted in the third round anyway.

The only names that stood out to me as possible targets with this pick were Antonio Gandy-Golden (WR – Liberty) or Shane Lemieux (OG – Oregon). However, even guys like this could be considered dart throws. Ryan Pace found a way to get the guy he wanted in this range by trading up to the 155th overall pick for Trevis Gipson. Could the Bears had taken Gipson at 140th overall and not traded away future picks? Yep. Will it matter? Not really.

I ask you, who would you have preferred had the Chicago Bears not traded their compensatory fourth-round pick to the Jaguars for a quarterback who will either win the starting spot and help the offense improve, push a young Mitchell Trubisky into being the franchise quarterback Ryan Pace envisioned or at least become a viable backup or bridge quarterback until the team drafts another quarterback prospect.

As I said, the value for landing Foles makes sense and the big network analysts who keep trying to say otherwise are pushing a lazy narrative.