Salary cap implications of Chicago Bears releasing Nick Foles
The Chicago Bears released quarterback Nick Foles. The move was somewhat expected, especially after the 2022 NFL draft came and went without Foles being moved. Ryan Poles already signed Trevor Siemian to be the backup and he made it clear that Foles would be moved at some point.
After focusing on the draft, that point finally came. Ryan Poles got respect from agents across the business by doing his player a solid and granting him what he wanted. This should help down the line when agents are directing their free agents to Chicago. They know that if they send their client to work with Poles that they will not get screwed over. It is also nice to have karma on your side.
Poles did the right thing, but it is still going to eat at the Chicago Bears. By moving on from Foles the Bears are going to save $3M. However, in the process, they are going to lose $7.6 in dead money.
They were going to have to eat the money one way or the other so to eat it while making Nick Foles happy is better than eating it and forcing him to be somewhere he does not want to be.
Still, the move hurts Chicago. Ryan Poles had to trade Khalil Mack because Pace kept pushing his salary back to the point where he could not handle it. He had to trade back multiple times on day three to try to supplement the loss of draft picks from Pace, and now he is eating dead money and releasing Nick Foles because Ryan Pace had the genius idea of trading for Foles and re-adjusting his contract.
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The Chicago Bears will eventually be on the books for $57M in dead money when Danny Trevathan and Foles see their caps hit the books. Fortunately, the team still has $16M this year, and they can eat all the bad money this year to start fresh next year. It is hard to judge anything Poles is doing because every move has been digging himself out of the moves done by Ryan Pace.