Last night during the live recording of Sports Trap Radio, a bomb was dropped concerning the Philadelphia Eagles. ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that the Eagles had traded running back Shady McCoy to the Buffalo Bills for inside linebacker Kiko Alonso. McCoy is coming off of a lackluster season, and would have counted for 11.95 million versus the cap in 2015. Alonso had a damn good rookie year in 2013, but missed all of the 2014 season with a torn ACL.
The instant reaction here in Philly was the classic overreaction by fans who loved McCoy during his tenure here. McCoy is a back with six years of wear and tear on his body, and after looking at his tape during the season and afterwards, he’s starting to trend downward. I haven’t agreed with a lot of things that Kelly has done, but this move I can see and understand the logic behind it. McCoy’s value is at it’s highest, they saved cap space, which will allow them to be major players in free agency, and on top of it all, this year’s class of running back prospects in the 2015 NFL Draft is the deepest it’s been in 10 years. I currently have 12 prospects with at least a fourth round grade.
In Kiko Alonso, the Eagles are hoping that they are getting a healthy, three down linebacker, with good upside. He’s not a classic downhill thumping ILB, but he’s a guy with similar traits as Mychal Kendricks: Fast, has solid instincts, comfortable in space and in pass coverage, and can make plays sideline to sideline. He’s not a guy who stacks and sheds blocks well at the point of attack, but if the Eagles scheme well, keeping he and Kendricks covered by the defensive front, he will flourish….as long as he’s healthy. The Eagles also signed former Packers ILB Brad Jones as an insurance policy for both Alonso and Demeco Ryans, who is coming off of his second Achilles tear in five years, and most likely will be cut.
The Eagles know have an estimated 46.8 million dollars in cap space to play with in free agency. Over the past week, they’ve cut veteran guard Todd Herremans, cornerback Cary Williams, and fan favorite outside linebacker Trent Cole, who had 85.5 sacks in his ten seasons with the team. The Eagles have plenty of holes to fill, they need two starting cornerbacks, a free safety, two guards: one to start next year and a young prospect to eventually replace Evan Mathis who’s up there in age. They also a third pass rushing outside linebacker to replace the previously mentioned Trent Cole and unrestricted free agent Brandon Graham, who combined for 11 sacks and 14 tackles for loss in 2014.
On top of it all, wide receiver Jeremy Maclin will hit the open market on March 10th, unless he and the Eagles agree to a new contract. Being one of the top two wide receivers on the market, it’s a chance a team will try to overpay Maclin, making it tough for the Eagles to bring him back. A wide receiving core with Jordan Matthews, Riley Cooper, and Josh Huff as it’s top three guys would be an instant downgrade and laughable in my opinion.
According to reports, the Eagles seem to be leaning to going all in to get Marcus Mariota in this year’s draft. All of the previous points that I’ve made in this article are the exact reasons why I think it’s a bad idea to give up numerous draft picks over the next few years for a quarterback that while he know’s Kelly’s system(which has changed a lot compared to college), has some flaws in his game when I watch him on film. Teams are built through the draft, starters are found in all rounds of the draft, and history has shown when you give up a big haul for one player, the team who gave up the haul ends up screwed.
If this was heading into Kelly’s first season as Eagles head coach, I would be more okay with it. But not after 20 wins in the first two years, heading into year three, and with a QB in Nick Foles who while not the dynamic athlete that Mariota is, he’s proven to a certain extent that he can play well enough to win games. Foles regressed last season, it’s no getting around it, the turnovers, the inaccuracy were legit concerns and I can see why Kelly and the Eagles fans would question him being the long term answer for this team.
The bottom line is pretty simple. Kelly is heading into the third year of a five year deal, he made a power play and was given full control by the Eagles owner Jeff Lurie. The ball is in his court….he’s going to go out and do it his way, and if he fails, he’ll be killed in Philly forever. But Chip Kelly will go right back to college, get paid ten million dollars a year and pick whatever great job he wants.
Muslim Football Scout 