Here’s what the Jaguars got for $30.5 million of Nick Foles

The Nick Foles experiment in Jacksonville is over. The Super Bowl 52 MVP was traded to the Bears at the start of the 2020 free agency period, ending his tenure as a Jaguar after only one season.

It was a disaster.

Foles’ greatest moment in white and teal, somehow, was also his worst: a gorgeous 35-yard touchdown strike to D.J. Chark in his debut that ended with a snapped clavicle.

Jacksonville paid Foles $30.5 million to make four starts and lose every one of them. He threw as many touchdown passes in one season as a Jaguar (three) than he did in one Super Bowl appearance. He missed a chunk of time early in the season due to injury, then a chunk of time late in the season because he couldn’t outplay a sixth-round rookie (albeit one with a resplendent mustache).

Let’s look back upon this era now that we can appreciate it in full.

His massive one-year payday is nearly twice what Patrick Mahomes will earn over the first four years of his rookie contract. It’s roughly what Tom Brady will be paid as a Buccaneer next season. It’s more than the combined cap hit of all five of his starting offensive linemen put together.

And here’s what the Jaguars got for that $30.5 million, broken down into an itemized list:

• Touchdown passes: three, at $10.17 million each
• Completions: 77 at $396,104 each
• Passing yards: 736 at $41,440 each
• First downs (passing and rushing): 33 at $924,242 each
• Rushing yards: 23 at $1.326 million each
• Delightful trick play receiving touchdowns: N/A. The Philly special remained Philly exclusive.
• Wins: N/A. Foles appeared in four games, all losses, in the Jags’ 6-10 season.

This was all very bad! For comparison, reigning MVP Lamar Jackson’s touchdown passes only cost $59,796 per score — 17 times less than Foles’ rare trips to the end zone. It only cost the Ravens $9,279 for each of his 232 first downs.

Credit to the Jaguars; after four years of Blake Bortles, they swung hard to find a quarterback with a winning, albeit checkered, pedigree. They wanted Foles so badly they probably negotiated against themselves to offer a player with nine starts the prior three seasons a four-year, $88 million contract. Then, once it was clear Foles (and football in general) wasn’t going to work out for them in 2020, they found a way to not only clear that disastrous contract from their books, but get the Bears to pay them a fourth-round pick for the privilege.

All Foles leaves behind for a rebuilding Jacksonville team now is memories. Some very, very expensive memories.